Good Morning Dear Readers and welcome to our exhaustive coverage of Budget 2019, which comes in the backdrop of falling employment, farm distress, tepid growth and a liquidity crisis in the NBFC space.
Globally, too, things are not looking that great with trade wars, rising crude oil prices, growth slump, and an overall fall in key economic indicators. But it’s not all gloom. With t
he Modi government winning the recently held general elections with a decisive mandate, expectations are running high that Modi 2.0 will deliver in Budget 2019.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her first Union Budget shortly. The mandate for this year is steep as Sitharaman will have to kickstart India's economy by reviving consumption amid the beginnings of a global slowdown, the NBFC liquidity crisis and bolster farmers' income in a delayed monsoon.
- NPS Trust will be separated from Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA)
- PAN and Aadhaar made interchangeable, allowing those who
do not have PAN to file return
- Pre-filled tax returns to contain information from salaries, bank interest, capital gain and dividend income to be made available
- Surcharge on individuals having taxable income of Rs 2 crore to Rs 5 crore, and Rs 5 crore and more raised
- Lower 25 percent corporate tax will apply on companies with up to Rs 400 crore turnover, covering 99.3 percent of corporate India
- Simplified return form for GST registered businesses in the offing
- Basic customs duty on auto parts, optical fibres, digital camera, cashew, certain synthetic rubber, vinyl flooring hiked
- Customs duty exempted on components of specified electronic goods
- Customs duty on certain parts of electric vehicles removed
- Cess on petrol, diesel raised by Re 1 per litre; customs duty on gold raised to 12.5 percent from 10 percent
- A nominal basic excise duty imposed on tobacco- Proposes Legacy Dispute Resolution scheme to solve litigations in service tax and excise
Finance minister to do a tightrope walk in Budget 2019-20Budget 2019 is likely to offer a mini-stimulus to take the economy out of five-year low, at the same time offering some tax relief to common man. This while balancing the needs of the economy and fiscal constraints.
So, here’s what one can reasonably expect:
1. Expect measures to boost spending at the cost of short-term slippage in fiscal deficit targets.
2. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will most likely lay down the Modi 2.0 government's road map for the economy and the nation in the next five years.
3. Offer some relief to the common man by raising personal income tax threshold for certain categories
4. Raise spending on agriculture, healthcare and social sectors.
5. The Budget may see a big push for infrastructure spending including roads and railways to drive growth
6. The FM may choose to offer stimulus via a combination of capital infusion in public sector banks, removing roadblocks that have crept into the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process, providing liquidity to non-bank financial companies (NBFCs), addressing the agrarian crisis and stepping up allocations for infrastructure and social sectors
Finance Minister used a
bahi khata (ledger) to carry the Budget papers instead of the traditional briefcase today. On that, news agency
ANI has quoted Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) KV Subramanian as saying: “It is in Indian tradition. It symbolizes our departure from slavery of Western thought.”