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Focus on Covid-19 vaccines, tax relief for elderly mark Budget 2021: 10 points
An estimated ₹2.23 lakh crore has been allocated for public health expenditure for the financial year 2021-2022. This is an increase of 137% against the expenditure outlined in the budget last year.
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday unveiled the Union Budget for the financial year 2021-22, looking at providing an impetus to the economy hit badly by the Covid-19 pandemic, a nationwide lockdown and its repercussions throughout last year. A large chunk of the budget was allocated to manufacturing more Covid-19 vaccines and for building road infrastructure in four poll-bound states. The finance minister announced that two more coronavirus vaccines were likely to be rolled out this year apart from the Serum Institute’s Covishield and the indigenous Covaxin by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech.
Ten key points which sum up the Budget 2021:
1. An amount of ₹35,000 crore has been allocated in the Budget for the manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines to continue and boost the nationwide inoculation drive launched by the Centre in January.
2. Capital expenditure will be increased to ₹5.54 lakh crore in Budget 2021-22, which is around 34% higher than last year. “Only three times has the Budget followed a contraction in the economy. This time, unlike before, the situation is due to a global pandemic,” Sitharaman said. The minister also pointed out that Budget 2021 was aimed at providing opportunities for the economy to revive from losses suffered in the last fiscal.
3. An estimated ₹2.23 lakh crore has been allocated for public health expenditure for the financial year 2021-2022. This is an increase of 137% against the expenditure outlined in the budget last year. The Budget also focussed on three key areas--- preventive health, curative health and well-being of citizens. “The budget outlay for health and well-being is ₹2.23 lakh crore in 2021-22 as against that of ₹94,452 crore,” Sitharaman said.
4. The Union Budget incorporates a highway infrastructure plan for four states -- Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerala and Assam—all slated for assembly polls later this year. Tamil Nadu will get ₹1.03 lakh crore for building of 3,500 km of roads, Kerala has been allocated ₹65,000 crore for 1,500 km of roads while West Bengal will get ₹95,000 crore for 675 km of roads. Nearly 1,300 km roads will be constructed at a cost of ₹3,400 crore in Assam.
5. In major tax relief for senior citizens, the finance minister announced that the compliance burden would be reduced for those who are 75 years of age and above. Over and above senior citizens who get only one pension and interest scheme will be exempted from filing their tax returns. A user-friendly Income Tax appeal tribunal will also be set up to help citizens to deal with tax issues.
6. The government will pump in ₹20,000 crore into public sector banks (PSBs) in the financial year 2021-22, to meet regulatory norms. For the current financial year, the government had made a provision of ₹20,000 crore for recapitalisation.
7. Customs duty on gold and silver has been reduced in the Union Budget. Customs duty on gold has been reduced to 7.5%. “Gold and silver presently attract a basic customs duty of 12.5%. Since the duty was raised from 10% in July 2019, prices of precious metals have risen sharply. To bring it closer to previous levels, we are rationalising customs duty on gold and silver,” Sitharaman said in her budget speech.
8. Import duty on parts of mobile phones and chargers has been hiked in the budget translating into costlier mobile phones. Finance Minister Sitharaman announced a review of 400 exemptions in customs duty including those on cellular devices. “For greater domestic value addition, we are withdrawing a few exemptions on parts of chargers and sub-parts of mobiles,” the minister said.
9. The Budget 2021 has proposed a voluntary vehicle scrapping policy to phase out old vehicles. The finance minister said the vehicle scrapping policy will encourage fuel efficiency, reduce vehicular pollution and oil import bills. Private vehicles that are over 20 years old and public vehicles that are over 15 years old could undergo fitness tests at automated fitness centres to check their eligibility for scrappage.
10. Sitharaman also proposed to provide ₹2217 crore for 42 million plus cities for implementation of clean air programmes. Under the Swachh Bharat campaign, the government will focus on complete faecal sludge management; wastewater treatment, source segregation of garbage; reduction of single use plastics; reduction in air pollution by effectively managing waste from construction activities. An amount of over ₹1.41 crore has been set aside for 5 years for these projects.
