Finance Minister Arun Jaitley estimated that the total expenditure for 2016-17 would be 19.78 trillion rupees – 5.5 trillion rupees for government programs and flagship schemes for the country’s development and 14.28 trillion rupees for areas such as defense and subsidies.
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In this regard, he said, the government appreciated the 75 lakh middle class and lower middle class families for willingly giving up cooking gas subsidy.
In a sharp attack on the government, Congress said it has “failed to create an immediate stimulus” to address economic challenges including employment generation with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh holding that the budget lacked any “big idea”.
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise Limited, today welcomed the transformative budget presented by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
Jaitley also said that non-banking financial companies would be eligible for deduction to the extent of 5 percent of their income in respect of provision for bad and doubtful debts.
“The budget’s central theme will be to merge voters’ expectations with our political ambition”, a senior BJP leader and a minister in the central government said.
“The thrust of the budget is towards strengthening rural and agriculture sectors and boosting employment-generation…”
The government said it will implement a slew of irrigation projects, construct roads in rural areas and speed up projects to bring electricity within two years to remote areas that fall dark after sunset.
For people who do not have any house of their own and/or self-employed, rent relief has been increased to Rs 60,000 per annum from the current Rs 24,000.
“It was an intriguing departure that the finance minister’s speech did not contain this mandatory reference”, he said.
The Prime Minister pushed for more and more use of modern technology and equipment along with traditional wisdom of farming to boost the agriculture sector, not only to meet the domestic needs but also cater to the demands from overseas.
“Similarly, 10 of the 25 non-functional air strips with the Airports Authority of India will also be developed”, said Jaitley.
“At a time when the global economy remains weak, India’s growth is laudable”.
“If the world slows down we will slow down as well”, the government’s chief economic adviser, Arvind Subramanian, told a news conference.
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The government also announced changes to its foreign direct investment policy, its policy covering the management of government investment in public sector enterprises, and a number of financial sector reforms, as well as improvements to governance and the ease of doing business. He said the government has been able to revive the road sector which has been languishing in the ICU and hoped the initiatives will gain momentum in the months to come. It proposes a 15 per cent cess, up 3 three per cent on incomes over Rs 1 crore and an additional 10 per cent tax on dividend above 10 lakhs a year.
