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Union Budget 2022 Highlights: The Union Budget or Finance Bill is the annual financial statement of India. It includes the Indian government’s revenue and expenditure for a given fiscal year, which runs from April 1 to March 31.
The target="_blank">Union Budget is the most extensive account of the government's finances, in which revenues from all sources and expenses of all activities undertaken are aggregated. It comprises the revenue budget and the capital budget. It also contains estimates for the next fiscal year. Keeping with recent tradition, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to announce Union Budget 2022 on February 1 this year.
This will be preceded by a virtual meeting of the Rajya Sabha floor leaders, ahead of the budget session of the Parliament, will be held on January 31. The meeting will be chaired by Chairman of the House and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu. The parliament session will begin amid electioneering for assembly elections to five states President Ram Nath Kovind will address the joint sitting of two Houses on January 31 and the Union Budget will be presented on February 1. Rajya Sabha is likely to function from 10 am till 3 pm on working days while the Lok Sabha will function from 4 pm to 9pm.
The first part of the budget session will begin on January 31 and will continue till February 11. The second part of the budget session will be held from March 14 to April 8. This year will be Sitharaman's fourth Budget after 2019, 2020 and 2021. She had read out the Budget from a tablet last year in parliament.
Expenditure on healthcare needs to move to 2.5% from 1.15% of GDP, says Apollo Hospitals' MD Dr Suneeta Reddy
ICAI seeks tax, accounting reforms
Budget to hold the reins on raising import duties, say sources
Govt should focus on fiscal consolidation, says Tata Mutual Fund's Murthy Nagarajan
No Zero, Question hour: The Budget session will not have Zero Hour and Question Hour during the first two days owing to the address of the President to both Houses together and the presentation of Union Budget.
Jobs must take centre stage: The recent clashes surrounding the recruitment process of Indian Railways paints a dire picture of India’s employment shortage, which wasn’t healthy to begin with.
Boosting consumption: The forthcoming budget needs to delay fiscal consolidation, instead should focus more on supporting the pandemic battered-economy and boost consumption demand.
Food, fertiliser subsidy: India is likely to set aside about 3 trillion rupees on food and fertiliser subsidies in its budget next week for 2022/23, roughly the same amount the govt budgeted for this fiscal year ending in March.
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Expenditure on healthcare needs to move to 2.5% from 1.15% of GDP, says Apollo Hospitals' MD Dr Suneeta Reddy
"It is the best time for the country to spend more on healthcare. Currently, 1.15% of GDP is spent on healthcare. This needs to move to 2.5% and it needs to be done as quickly as possible," said Dr Suneeta Reddy, MD, Apollo Hospitals on upcoming Union Budget.
ICAI seeks tax, accounting reforms
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has sought about 14 tax and accounting reforms in the upcoming Union budget. The suggestions essentially aim at making laws simple, fair, transparent. less litigative and user friendly, ICAI president Nihar N Jambusaria said.
There are about 14 suggestions from our end submitted to the Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs (CBIC) for consideration, he said on the sidelines of an international conference of CA students. The suggestions include permitting carry back of losses and introducing suitable legislative amendments for its application. It is relevant for hospitality, passenger transport and some other sectors.
Regarding depreciation on slump sale, the ICAI suggested amendment of a provision of the Income Tax Act to clarify the legal position as to whether depreciation can be claimed on the basis of proportionate number of days by the transferer and the transferee company. It also proposed that Section 12 of the Act be amended to clarify that voluntary contributions shall include one in kind and the value of the property so received by a trust or institution shall be the fair market value as on date of receipt of such contribution.
The definition of demerger should include the corporate divestiture in form of spin-off under which a parent company transfers its shareholding in a subsidiary to its shareholders, the ICAI suggested.
Source: PTI
Budget to hold the reins on raising import duties, say sources
The government is expected to maintain a status quo on import duties in the Union Budget for 2022-23, the first time since 2018-19, given the rising perception that India is turning extremely protectionist. The government had been raising import duties since then in an effort to balance trade.
Duties on items such as gold might be lowered to curb its imports through unofficial channels, said senior government sources. Duties on metal commodities might also be lowered to help lower input costs for user industries. According to the sources, the budget may instead focus on widening the production linked incentive (PLI) schemes to encourage domestic manufacturing of items that are currently imported.
Import duties are taxes collected on imports by the customs authorities. Apart from generating revenue, it serves as a mechanism to control the flow of goods into the domestic market.
"Continuously burgeoning trade deficit had created a policy headache for the government back in 2018-19. However, since then, the deficit has narrowed. As of now, it is not on the priority list," a senior official said.
Government should focus on fiscal consolidation, says Tata Mutual Fund's Murthy Nagarajan
“Government debt to GDP ratio is around 90 % . Total interest payment has reached 45 % of the net revenue realizable by government in the coming years. The economy is in a recovering rapidly. Liquidity and monetary conditions are supportive for economic recovery. Globally, central banks are hiking interest rates to control inflation pressure in the economy. Given this background and lower impact of third wave of covid, we expect the government to focus on fiscal consolidation. We expect the next year fiscal deficit to be around 6 % of GDP and total borrowing programme to be in the range of Rs 12.5 to 13 Lakh Crores. The government will also give a road map to reduce the fiscal deficit in coming years. The government will target aggressive divestment and facilitate steps for inclusion of Indian bonds in the global bond fund index . this will reduce supply pressure of government bonds in the domestic markets and control abrupt upward movement in government bond yields.”
The government is expected to maintain a status quo on import duties in the Union Budget for 2022-23, the first time since 2018-19, given the rising perception that India is turning extremely protectionist. The government had been raising import duties since then in an effort to balance trade.
Duties on items such as gold might be lowered to curb its imports through unofficial channels, said senior government sources. Duties on metal commodities might also be lowered to help lower input costs for user industries. According to the sources, the budget may instead focus on widening the production linked incentive (PLI) schemes to encourage domestic manufacturing of items that are currently imported. [Read more]
Days ahead of the Budget Session of the Parliament, the Rajya Sabha Secretariat has released a Code of Conduct for its members, news agency ANI reported. The direction for the 'Code of Conduct' came from Chairman of the Upper House M Venkaiah Naidu, informing that "Committee on Ethics in its Fourth Report presented to the Council on the March 14, 2005 and adopted by it on April 20, 2005 had inter alia considered the Code of Conduct for Members enumerated by the Committee in its First Report which was also adopted by the Council. The Committee felt that the Code was quite comprehensive and endorsed the same. It recommended that the Code of Conduct may be published in Bulletin Part II on the eve of each Session for information of and compliance by the Members." [Read more]
