When Narendra modi government was re elected in may earlier this year. All the eyes were on the government’s new policies and what will happen to the economy. In her maiden budget on July 5, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman gave the outline of what the policies are going to look like in the next 5years.
Here are the few highlights of this years budget:
Taxes
Under the new tax regime, those with income between Rs 2 – 5 crore will pay a tax at 39% rate. And those more than 5crore will pay a massive 42.74% (Which is more than US where maximum tax rate is capped at 37%)
Space
New Space India Ltd (NSIL) is now setup as a new corporate arm of ISRO to manage and drive the commercial aspect of the national space agency. This extension will help focus on the space exploration arm and to make sure india stays in top in the $370 billion space industry.
Amending labour laws
The finance minister said that the government is going to streamline all the Labour laws into 4 laws:
The four proposed laws — Industrial Relations Code Bill, Wage code Bill, and Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions (Amendment) Bill.
The government believes that the easing up of the laws will help bring the entrepreneurs from around the world and make It easier for them to do business.
Railways
Indian railways had its own budget for decades however since being discontinued after 2016. The FM said the Indian railways needs 50 lakh crore rupees for a massive modernisation programme until 2030.
Rs. 1.6lakh crores were allocated to Indian railways as capital expenditure which is its highest ever.
Education
The Government has allocated Rs 56,536.63 crore to the Department of School Education and Literacy, and Rs 38,317.01 crore to the Department of Higher Education, making the education budget a total of Rs 94,853.64 crore. An increase from the Revised Budget 2018-19, which was at Rs 83,625.86 crore.
Infrastructure
The finance ministry had allocated the highest-ever budgetary support of ₹83,016 crore to the highways sector. The government has set an investment target of ₹80,250 crore for phase three of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, under which the government wants to build 1,25,000 km of village roads.
In conclusion, The 2019 budget shows that $5trillion economy by 2024 goal set by the government is very ambitious but at the current growth rate of over 7% annually and being the fastest growing major economy in the world. Accompanied by India’s heavy investment in sectors like Infrastructure and education. That may well become a reality.
