Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled her second Budget in Parliament on Saturday, where she listed the achievements of the Modi government and presented the government’s plan for the economy in the coming year.
“In May 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a massive mandate to form the government again. With renewed vigour, under his leadership, we commit ourselves to serve people. People of India have unequivocally given their janadesh (mandate) not for political stability but also reposed faith in our economic policy,” Sitharaman said as she presented the Budget in the Lok Sabha.
Our first tenure (from 2014 to 19) brought a paradigm shift, added Sitharaman, and hailed the implementation of Goods and Services Tax (GST). She also paid homage to former finance minister Arun Jaitley, who passed away in August last year.
“I pay homage to visionary leader Late Arun Jaitley, the chief architect of Goods and Services Tax. GST has been the most historic of the structural reforms. GST has been gradually maturing into a tax that has integrated the country economically,” said Sitharaman.
Sitharaman is likely to increase state spending on infrastructure and offer some tax incentives in its 2020/2021 budget, aiming to get growth back up from its lowest in a decade.
In its annual economic report, released on Friday, the government predicted that economic growth would pick up to 6.0 per cent to 6.5 per cent in the fiscal year beginning April 1, but warned that it may have exceed its deficit target to revive growth.
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