Union Budget 2021: FM Nirmala Sitharaman comes to Parliament before the presentation of the budget

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is due to announce the Union Budget 2021-22 today. She’s likely to use a ‘made in India’ tablet computer to deliver a paperless budget address. This budget assumes greater relevance in the sense of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has contributed to major economic instability in India and around the world.

Though the nation has seen good economic growth after controls on lockdowns have been relaxed, there is still a long way to go. Both eyes are on this budget, hoping that it will continue to revitalize the economy. After the last budget, the scale of India’s economy has decreased from Rs 2.24 Lakh to Rs 1.94 Lakh. There has been lower-than-budget income growth and higher spending to counter the negative effects of the pandemic. Given work losses during the lockdown, employment creation could be one of the core elements of the program. Higher public spending and emphasis on infrastructure and manufacturing are the three main priority areas that FM Sitharaman wants to resolve in the budget, according to key figures from India Inc. as part of the CII-Moneycontrol CEO Budget Survey. Experts have indicated that the focus could be primarily on health care, agriculture, rural economy, small and medium-sized enterprises, credit development and the sectors that were hardest affected by the COVID-19 lock-down restrictions. The fiscal stimulus pathway, the borrowing programme, demand-side steps, divestment strategies, export incentives and vaccine spending by India may be more key points to be watched. Speaking to Moneycontrol after presenting Economic Survey 2020-21, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian indicated that the budget might concentrate on demand-side to raise discretionary spending.