Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced the Budget 2022 today (February 1, 2022). According to her statement, the ministry has tried its best to provide necessary ecosystemfor the middle class society.
The Budget 2022 has been prepared with the purpose of laying the foundation for Amrit Kal from India at 75 to India at 100. This Budget session is the sixth one since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in January 2020. The income tax slabs have been kept unchanged by the government. Some big announcements have been made in the Budget session. Among them, one of the most important announcements is that 30% tax will be applicable on the transfer of digital assets. Announcements have been made that a new digital rupee will be introduced by the Reserve Bank of India or RBI, using block-chain technology.
The Union Budget 2022 will be declared in a month. In the Union Budget Session, the assembly elections will be held in five states.
Nirmala Sitharaman has stated that the government will strive and overcome the challenges faced due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Budget speech has been started by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the Budget for the fiscal year 2022-23 before the actual presentation. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Railways, Communications and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Parliamentary Affairs Ministers Pralhad Joshi, and other ministers arrived at the Parliament for the Union Cabinet Meeting for attending the Budget presentation.
The world’s largest Covid-19 inoculation program has been started in India on January 16, 2021. The expenditure on the vaccination program will be the most-watched figure in the present Budget as well as in the upcoming one. The Budget allotted for the vaccination expenditure for the present fiscal was Rs.35,000 crore.
The government is yet to reach the targets set in the Budgets for high disinvestments. The Finance Minister has said that the Union Budget would be used as the cornerstone for the accelerated growth of the economy after the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. The government has a target to reach a $5 trillion economy by the year 2025. The capital expenditure allocation is expected to be higher. The healthy tax revenues and mega disinvestment pipeline is estimated to help contain the fiscal deficit to 5% in 2023.
The NGOs have made a recommendation for establishing a separate ministry and special schemes on digital literacy in the Union Budget for the development of the elderly class.