Heena Sharma Blog

  The government on Monday announced a Rs 18,000 crore scheme to augment public transport in urban areas. In the first paperless Union Budget , Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said there will be 100 per cent electrification of broad gauge rail tracks by December 2023. She also said a record Rs 1,10,055 crore will be provided for railways, of which Rs 1,07,100 crore will be for capital expenditure in 2021-22. Read More

  In a significant change amid digitalisation, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman this year unveiled a ' Made in India ' tablet replacing the traditional briefcase before presenting Budget 2021 . With the move aimed at a paperless Budget, now 'bahi khata' (a ledger wrapped in a red cloth) has been completely removed from this year -- a move to reinforce Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious 'Digital India' mission. In 1947, India's first Finance Minister R. K. Shanmukham Chetty carried a leather portfolio to present the first Budget. In January, the Central government also launched 'Union Budget Mobile App' on the occasion of the Halwa ceremony to enable MPs and people to access Budget documents digitally. It was launched as no budget papers will be printed this year in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Sitharaman, who will present the Budget for the third time, is expected to lift and give an impetus to the Indian economy that has been...

Health care sector on Sunday welcomed the government’s decision to ramp up infrastructure and undertaking structural reforms, but said the industry also needed support in view of the headwinds it faced due to Covid-19 pandemic . The announcements by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to increase investment in public health, ramping up infrastructure at grassroot level and getting future ready for Covid-like public health crises are strategic reforms, apex industry body NATHEALTH said. Read More

The total number of Covid-19 cases in India stands at 81,970, out of which 27,920 have been cured and 2,649 have died due to the infectious disease, leaving behind 51,401 active cases so far, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The country now is just a whisker from overtaking China — from where the virus originated. In view of the surge in daily new cases in Maharashtra, the state government is likely to extend lockdown in major coronavirus hotspots, including Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Malegaon and Solapur, till May 31, according to media reports. Read More

The total number of Covid-19 cases in India stands at 78,003, out of which 26,235 have been cured and 2,549 have died due to the pandemic, leaving behind 49,219 active cases so far, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Yesterday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave details of a Rs 20-trillion economic package. In her announcements she focused mainly on MSMEs, NBFCs, power discoms, real estate sector and organised sector employees. Additionally, she said the definition of MSMEs would be altered and that the government would disallow global participation in its procurement tenders for up to Rs 200 crore. Read More

Hitting out at the Congress party, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that wilful defaulters were beneficiaries of 'phone banking' under the UPA regime and the Modi government was chasing them to recover the dues. She was responding to the opposition's allegations of loan waivers worth Rs 68,607 crore in the form of write-offs of top 50 wilful defaulters during the first half of the financial year ended March 2020. The Finance Minister, through a series of tweets on Tuesday, said that the Congress has attempted to mislead people, and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi should introspect why his party fails to play a constructive role in cleaning up the system. Read More

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a meeting with Parliamentary floor leaders of different parties on Wednesday morning at 11 am through video conference, to decide the future course of action as far as coronavirus outbreak in India is concerned, among other key issues. The primary point on the agenda will be whether to end the shutdown or extend it and if the government wishes to withdraw it, what should be the approach. The current shutdown is slated to end on April 14. Another point of discussion will be the economic impact of the shutdown on India and how to deal with it. Money released to states, future of daily wage workers who are the worst hit due to total shutdown and scope if any possible economic package will be discussed in the meeting, according to reports. Read More

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on March 26 announced Rs 1.7 trillion stimulus package to provide relief to the underprivileged, poor and migrant workers affected by a 21-day nationwide lockdown due to Covid-19 crisis . Among several other benefits, the FM also announced amendment in the EPFO regulation to allow employees withdraw up to 75 per cent of their corpus as non-refundable advance, or three months' basic salary, whichever is less. Now, the Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has started taking withdrawal requests, and has also issued a circular on the frequently asked questions. Have a question? Here are the FAQs answered: Who is eligible for the advance from EPF to fight Covid-19 Pandemic? Any member of EPF Scheme, 1952 with UAN (Universal account number) employed in any establishment or factory covered under EPF & MP Act, 1952. Read More

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharama assured the depositor that their corpus was safe in YES Bank and the Reserve Bank of India would manage the situation well. She said that the YES Bank board has been bypassed and former State Bank of India chief financial officer Prashant Kumar has been appointed administrator of YES Bank. RBI is finding a solution to this, and no depositor will lose any money, she said. She added that the people can withdraw money to deal with tough situations and the cash crunch is being dealt with. Read More

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday introduced a bill in Lok Sabha which seeks to provide for resolution of disputed tax cases involving Rs 9.32 trillion. Introducing the Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Bill , 2020, the minister said this bill emphasises on trust building. The scheme, she said, will not be an open ended scheme and can be availed for a limited time. The bill seeks to provide a formula-based solution without any discrimination, she said. Giving the rationale behind the scheme, Sitharaman said it will reduce the litigation expenditure for the government and at the same may help in generating some revenue. Opposing the introduction of the bill, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the bill's name is drafted in Hindi and the government is trying to impose one specific language on the country. Read More

A cut in personal income tax, sops for rural and agriculture sectors as well as an aggressive push on infrastructure spending are likely to be part of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman 's "feel-good" second Budget. Facing the worst economic slowdown in more than a decade, Sitharaman is expected to pull out all stops to spur consumer demand and investment, government sources and economists said. Sitharaman's second Budget, to be presented on February 1, is expected to announce measures to restore economic growth and to set out a clear road map for achieving the ambitious target of USD 5 trillion economy by 2025. Investments have failed to pick up despite corporate tax cuts and other stimulus measures, higher FDI inflows, plans to consolidate state-owned banks and monetary easing. After corporate tax cuts in September last year, speculation is rife about possible reduction in personal income taxes. A combination of an increase in the basic exemption limit...

The Budget session was inaugurated today with the President’s address. The Budget would be presented by Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2020. General Election 2019 saw the opposition try to corner the Narendra Modi government on the issues of a slowing economy, unemployment and rural distress. The voters however reposed their faith in the government and gave it an even bigger mandate. The state of the economy however has continued to be the biggest cause of worry for the government. Not only has unemployment reached record high levels, GDP growth has tanked and India may go by a less than 5 per cent in this fiscal year. The state of the economy is what makes Budget 2020 very important. How important is the Budget for the government politically? What can the government do to mitigate the political risk? Is it the best chance for Modi 2.0 to announce major economic reforms? Read More

The economic slowdown may have clipped sales of cars and biscuits in 2019, but smartphones bucked the trend as urban and rural users continued to buy, and even upgrade to, expensive handsets - a trend likely to pick up pace in the coming year. The growth in smartphone adoption was further fuelled by the government's push to position the country as a global hub for manufacturing and coax Apple and other leading brands to produce and export more phones from India. Experts say that phone shipment is expected to see high single-digit to double-digit growth in India as smartphones aiding everything from shopping to banking to social media and, yes, perfect selfies! Counterpoint Research Associate Director Tarun Pathak expects India's smartphone market to grow by 9 per cent this year, and in double digits (by 12-14 per cent) in 2020. By 2022, over 700 million people are expected to have a smartphone in India, and over a billion devices will be sold over the next four-f...

India's first female money serve in right around five decades, Nirmala Sitharaman , has held a wide scope of occupations: She rode on board a contender stream as barrier serve. As leader of the exchange office she pondered falling fares. She's been a national representative for her gathering, and in more youthful days worked in London as a home style salesman. Presently Sitharaman, 59, faces what may wind up one of the hardest exercises in careful control of her profession. On May 31, inside hours of her landing in her new office in New Delhi, she was welcomed with India's most exceedingly awful monetary updates on the year: Unemployment had contacted a 45-year high, and India had lost its tag of the world's quickest developing real economy to China in the last quarter of the financial year. On July 5, Sitharaman shows up in her new job, introducing India's financial limit when she's experiencing tension to spend more to revitalize the economy. She sh...

During decision years, for example, this one, India's active fund priest offers up just a "between time spending plan," under the suspicion that the approaching government will have diverse arrangement needs. Given that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's legislature was reelected so effectively, one may think the spending it's booked to introduce on July 5 won't look vastly different. It should. Modi's new fund serve, Nirmala Sitharaman , faces unexpected conditions in comparison to her forerunner. In the months since the between time spending plan, India's economy has gotten ugly. In May, we discovered that the economy had developed at just 5.8% in the three months among January and March, essentially lower than anticipated. The storm - pivotal for development in agribusiness, which utilizes half or a greater amount of India's specialists - has failed to meet expectations. Downpour in June was a third not exactly expected; it was the fifth-...

Seven central ministries and departments have not earmarked funds for tribal welfare schemes in their budget for 2019-20 and 12 have "kept the provision below the level stipulated by the Niti Aayog", officials said Wednesday. In 2017, the Niti Aayog developed new guidelines obligating 41 central ministries and departments to earmark funds for "Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes" (DAPST), earlier known as Tribal Sub-Plan. An official said the guidelines were finalized in January 2019, which means complete adherence cannot be ensured this financial year. "Since the ministries decide their allocations for various schemes by November-December and the guidelines were finalised in January, any corrective action is possible next year only," the official said. The guidelines state that the 41 identified ministries and departments have to earmark at least 4.3 per cent funds for DAPST. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

The Centre is considering increasing the personal income tax threshold in next month’s budget, according to people familiar with the matter, as authorities seek to kickstart consumption in the economy. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman may raise the tax exemption limit for working-age individuals to Rs 300,000 ($4,316) of their annual income, up from the current Rs 250,000, the people said, asking not to be identified as they aren’t authorised to speak publicly about the proposals. The tax measures haven’t been finalised yet. Any tax exemptions will add stimulus to an economy that’s slowed sharply this year, with growth reaching a five-year low of 5.8 per cent in the first three months of the year. The proposed tax move would put at least Rs 2,500 more in the hands of each of India’s 50 million taxpayers. It could also add to pressure on the budget deficit, which is pegged at 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product for the current fiscal year that began on April 1. The f...

Tax officials are likely to ask for a reduction up to 6 per cent in their collection target in the full Union Budget for 2019-20, compared to what was given in the interim Budget. That 6 per cent would translate into a reduction of Rs 1.5 trillion. The new finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, has already expressed concern over revenue collection at interactions with officials. The cuts are being sought by both the direct and indirect tax departments. Direct tax officials are going to ask for a cut in their collection target by Rs 60,000-70,000 crore or 4.3-5.1 per cent of the figure in the interim Budget for 2019-20, for overall yearly growth of 15 per cent. If approved, the direct tax collection target would be revised at close to Rs 13 trillion, from Rs 13.8 trillion in the interim Budget. As for indirect taxes, the central goods and services tax (CGST) growth target might be cut by Rs 70,000-80,000 crore in the full Budget or 11.5-13 per cent of the interim Budget if on...