INTERIM Budget 2019 – Innovative Visionary Budget with Missionary Zeal

Piyush Goyal, Interim Finance Minister, though said to present an Interim Budget, had given a deadly shock just like  ‘Economic Surgical Strike’ to all opposition parties making them utterly confused ‘how to react and oppose the Budget of Modi?’.

Because the benefits were extended to almost all sections of the societies like farmers having cultivable land up to 5 acres of land  – with £ 6,000 per year as support cash incentives to buy agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, seeds, etc., unorganized informal sector workers drawing a monthly salary of £ 15,000/- with pension of £ 3000/- per month from the age of 60 years just paying an amount ranging from £ 55/- to £ 100/- each month depending upon their age at the time of joining the scheme, and above all, the honest taxpaying middle class earning up to £ 5 lacs removed completely from tax liabilities and with full use of £ 1.5 lac exemption available under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act even those earning annual income of £ 6.5 lacs need to pay no tax, had estopped all opposition  party members. 

If other exemptions announced in the Budget are taken into account, no tax need to be paid upto £ 10 lacs approximately.

These benefits cover more than 12 crores farmers, 30-40 crores workers employed in the unorganized sector and around 3 crore middle class families.

Goyal had in his budget speech acknowledged the contributions made by the middle class tax payers and thanked them. This is the first time such encomiums were showered on the honest middle class tax payers.

Goyal had further confirmed that his Government had taken every steps to see that their tax money was spent judiciously, honestly and wisely and that adequate steps had been taken to remove middle men so that full benefits reached the targeted groups with the introduction Direct Benefit Scheme using Digital India platform and bank accounts with aadhar numbers to plug any lapses and leakages.

As a tribute to Salaried Persons, they are also given further following benefits in the people’s friendly budget:

•Standard deduction raised to £ 50,000/- from £ 40,000/- which will give additional tax benefit of £ 4700/-.

•Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) on interest earned on bank/post office deposits raised from £ 10000/- to £ 40,000/-.

•TDS of tax on rent increased from £ 180000/- to £ 240000/-.

•No Notional rent for 2 houses – relief being provided considering the difficulty of the middle class having to maintain families at two different locations on account of their jobs, children’s education, or the care of parents.

Honesty of middle class people is trusted, as last year 99.54% of the returns filed were accepted as they were filed. Budget promised that All income tax returns will be processed in 24 hours and refunds issued simultaneously and within the next 2 years, almost all verification and assessment of returns will be done electronically thereby completely eliminating any personal interface between taxpayers and tax officers.

Several incentives for home buyers, owners and real estate developers were announced to give a boost to the real estate sector such as one in life time capital gains under Section 54 of the Income Tax Act from investment in one residential house to two for a tax payer with capital gains upto £ 2 crore, no payment of notional rent by builders for 2 years as it was estimated that there are about 6.7 lac units lying unsold.

For Capital market, stamp duty will be levied on 1 instrument relating to I transaction that will be collected at stock exchange and then shared with the particular State based on the buyer’s domicile and such a step will not only help in simplicity of compliance but also in bringing down the overall transaction cost.

For Defence and Home ministries, allocations were around £ 3 lac crore and £ 1 lac crore respectively – an increase of 8% and 5% respectively in view of the border security and internal law and order problem by equipping them with uptodate defence equipments and modernization of police forces.

Similarly Railways get around £ 1.59 lac crore – the highest ever allocation. Similarly, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector had got a 2% interest subvention for loans up to £ 1 crore and to help the sector to market their products, government had to buy at least 25% from MSMEs with a sub-clause of procurement of 3% from women run organization under Government e Market (GeM).

The allotment of £ 750 crore to the Rashtriya Gokul Mission (RGM) is to develop Gokul Gram care centres for indigenous breeds of high genetic merit with the objective to get native breeds to produce more milk and to raise the quality of Indian cows and bulls to eventually outdo Jerseys and Holsteins.

This budget should be specially appreciated for recognizing and acknowledging the voiceless and very hard working unorganized sector employees. They will be paid a monthly pension of £ 3000/- from the age of 60 years. It is heartening to know this pension scheme to them, as their contributions in building bridges, highways, railways, buildings, dams, railways etc. are the backbone of all Governmental Developments. Though no one had ever demanded to help such hard working employees, Modi Government had extended a helping hand to such poor employees. The same spirit of humanitarian was extended to nomadic communities by setting up a welfare development Board to help such most deprived citizens.

Artificial Intelligence being an important component of cyber physical system is now tied to an existing programme called the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NMICPS) having a total outlay of £ 3660/- crore for 5 years with an additional amount of £ 5 crore in the budget. It is expected to create 40000 jobs in the short term and about 2 lacs in the long term.

Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, Fugitive Economic Offenders Act and Demonetization had compelled holders of large cash currency to disclose their source of earnings. Due to these measures, undisclosed income of about £ 1.3 lac crore apart from attachment of assets worth about £ 50,000/- crore was achieved. Further benami assets worth £ 6,900 crore and foreign assets worth £ 1600 crore were attached. In all, 3.38 lac shell companies were detected and de-registered and their directors disqualified.

Main objection raised by Rahul about this budget was that ‘I think it is an insult to the Indian farmer to turn around and tell him that you are going to give him £ 17 a day; there could not have been bigger insult than this.’

First of all the 6000/- annual amount payment is not for farmer’s daily maintenance and it is for agricultural inputs spread over to 3 seasons with the disbursement of £ 2000/- each which he can use it.

Further every amount of money has value. The assurance of something certain coming to you gives a sense of confidence. Each family unit – of a married couple and their minor children – was eligible for the scheme. A household of 5 adult brothers jointly owning a 10 hectare piece of land would receive £ 30,000 for the year. Farmers holding cultivable lands upto 5 acres should not be portrayed as beggars – as if they had to depend completely for their livelihood on freebees. But it is a fact that similar schemes in Teleganga and Odisha are paying more – and hence under Federal set up, it is upto State Governments to supplement the Central Government assistance.

The Hindu Newspaper had headlined the budget as “SOP OPERA” and in its editorial “Shopping for votes”, but strangely the contents and tenor were not in tune with the sarcastic headlines and editorial contents. Even the Hindu had published next to its Editorial an article written by by Ashima Goyal - a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council under the heading ‘Distributing the rewards of reform’.

The Hindu in its editorial had observed: ‘Though some past governments have announced sops in their interim budgets with an eye on elections, this budget has gone much further announcing very significant measures. In political terms, the strategy cannot be faulted as it appears to have put the opposition in a difficult spot – protesting too much about the concessions given to those in distress may be counter-productive. That said, some of these ideas may actually work in economic terms as they put money in people’s hands.’

The important part of this budget was that it had spelt out Vision 2030 for New India. Perhaps the goal is based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or 17 Global Goals set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. The budget had listed 10 items with an ambitious goal to make India a Developed Nation.

1.Infrastructure: To build physical and social infrastructure for a “ten trillion dollar economy” in the next 8 years and to provide ease of living.

2.Digital India - digital Infrastructure and digital economy will be built upon the successes achieved in recent years in digitisation of Government processes and private transactions.

3.Clean and green India - Besides making India a pollution free nation, the government plans to drive the electric vehicle revolution.

4.Rural industrialization - To develop grass-roots level clusters, structures and mechanisms encompassing the MSMEs, village industries and start-ups spread across India.

5.Clean rivers - safe drinking water to all Indians, sustaining and nourishing life and efficient use of water in irrigation using micro-irrigation techniques.

6)Oceans and coastline - To tap into the ‘Blue Economy’ by scaling up the Sagarmala project to develop other inland waterways faster.

7)Space - Our space programme -- Gaganyaan, India becoming the launch-pad of satellites for the World and placing an Indian astronaut into space by 2022.

8)Self-sufficiency in food production - To achieve self-sufficiency in food in an organic way through modern agricultural practices and value addition.

9)Health - To create a healthy society with an environment of health assurance and the support of health infrastructure aiming to work towards a distress free health care and a functional, and comprehensive wellness system.

10)Minimum government, maximum governance - To have a proactive and responsible bureaucracy which will be seen as friendly by the people by 2030.

Goyal had said: In short, with this comprehensive ten-dimensional Vision, we will create an India where poverty, malnutrition, littering and illiteracy would be a matter of the past. India would be a modern, technology-driven, high growth, equitable and transparent society.

This budget, as explained by an article in Economic Times, makes an effort to balance the short – to medium-term objectives of the economy with a long-term vision for 2030.

Hence we have termed this Budget as a visionary one with setting clear goals which Modi Government’s Team India is confident to achieve in record time with missionary zeal.

Modi Development Agenda coupled with 10% reservation for Economically Weaker Section in General Category plus people’s friendly incentive oriented Budget especially No Tax upto 5 lacs for salaried employees, annual support income of £ 6000/- to farmers and pension of £ 3000 for unorganized sector workers etc. are enough to win 2019 Lok Sabha election with thumbing majority.

Modi’s move to Supreme Court which is not serious to hasten the process of hearing the Ram Janma Bhoomi Land dispute Case, had filed an affidavit to hand over the undisputed land surrounding the disputed site to the rightful owners and VHP declaring that this is a right move by Modi Government and they will not do anything to disturb the present status till the Lok Sabha election and also urging all to vote for Modi Government – are all good tidings and signs for Modi to Win 2019 with thumping majority – more than what Modi had achieved in 2014 Lok Sabha election.

Bharath Mathaki Jai! Vanthe Matharam