New Delhi, Jan 30: With yet another Pandemic and upcoming assembly elections, the budget 2022 comes at a crucial time with a number of expectations and wish lists of the common man.
The Budget Session of the parliament will commence from January 31 with President Ram Nath Kovind’s address. The first part of the Union budget session of Parliament will be held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part of the budget session will take place March 14 to April 8.
Union Budget 2022 is likely to be presented at 11 am on 1st February (Tuesday), despite staggered timing for Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha. The duration of the Budget presentation might range from 90 to 120 minutes. However, in 2020, Sitharaman had delivered the longest budget speech in Indian history which lasted around 160 minutes.
The budget presentation will be broadcast live on Lok Sabha TV. People can also watch the event on various other news outlets and on various social media platforms like YouTube and Twitter.
Will Budget 2022 be a fair budget or more focused on populist measures to please the electorate? Would the common man’s aspiration be sacrificed on the altar of much needed growth numbers or it would be a goodie bag focused on tax breaks and exemptions? In a backdrop of internal concerns like the Omicron and rising inflation and external factors like the crude prices and Fed rate hikes, there is a requirement of continued and exigent steps by the Government to support the economy. It is certainly an uphill task for Finance minister to work out a budget that is balanced in the true sense.
Before we delve into the wish list of the common man, we certainly should have a quick recap of the last year. Post Covid 19, there were sops doled out through liquidity infusion to the tune of 17.22 lakh crore, almost 8.7% of the GDP from Feb 20 to Sep 21 (as per the Monetary policy report published in October 21). FY 21-22 was a good one from the point of tax collections, both in the form of direct taxes and GST (10.80 lakh crore and 10.7 lakh crore collected till Dec 21 respectively). The Government’s target of keeping the fiscal deficit at 6.6% of the GDP may just be a step away.
In the present times, one way for this to happen could be through sharp cuts in expenditure but this could hurt the economy; a double-sided sword indeed! Post Omicron, as the country goes in and out of lockdowns, a hit on the consumer and business spending looms large.
While these are issues that are of concern to the economists, the common man is more worried about mundane things like lower taxes and more money in his pockets and in an election year, the common man cannot be taken lightly.
