Although finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman seems to have pleased India Inc with her Budget 2023-24 tax and spend proposals, following a long and negligent tradition of North Block, Delhi, she has paid scant attention to the education sector writes Dilip Thakore The Union Budget 2023-24 presented to Parliament last month has — as usual — been widely acclaimed by captains of industry and media pundits. Not entirely without cause this time. There is undoubtedly substance in the comment that it’s the best of the five consecutive budgets presented by Finance Minister Dr. Nirmala Sitharaman. She has pleasantly surprised all by her able management — especially compared to her predecessors P. Chidambaram and incompetent Pranab Mukherjee — of this vitally important ministry since she was moved from the defence ministry to North Block, Delhi five years ago. It’s pertinent to bear in mind that during her tenure, she had to guide the economy through two years of the pandemic when business and industry was severely disrupted by lockdown of factories and business establishments and education institutions to prevent the deadly Covid-19 virus from decimating the country’s population. A substantial measure of credit for keeping the economy on even keel despite the unprecedented GDP contraction of 6.6 percent in 2020-21 and subsequently firing the idling engines of the economy which is now reportedly the fastest growing worldwide (forecast at 6.8 percent in 2023-24 by IMF), must be awarded to her. That the Indian economy has recovered its momentum even as most other countries around the world are experiencing recessionary conditions is substantially true. As reported in Budget 2023-24, the Centre’s tax revenue in 2022-23 at Rs.41.87 lakh crore is 6.2 percent higher than the budgeted Rs.39.44 lakh crore and 4.06 percent higher than in 2021-22. This is proof that Indian industry has recovered its momentum. It also reflects tax collection efficiency and that teething problems of switching to the CGST (Central Goods and Services Tax) indirect tax system in 2017, have been sorted. CGST contributed Rs.26.71 lakh crore (upto January 2023) to total tax collection of Rs.37.91 lakh crore. It rebounds to the BJP government’s credit that cascading sales taxes which artificially pushed up the price of goods and services for decades, have been abolished. The fact that the CGST payments system has been successfully digitalised is an additional bonus. Moreover even if imperceptibly, the agriculture sector (over 60 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture and allied activities) is also steadily adopting new digital technologies. In Budget 2023-24, on the expenditure side, prime importance has been accorded to capital spending which will have a strong multiplier effect within the economy. The Centre’s effective capital expenditure outlay for this year at Rs.13.70 lakh crore is 30 percent higher than in 2022-23 and 153.7 percent higher than in the pre-pandemic fiscal year (2019-20). This is an especially commendable feature of Union Budget 2023-24. Despite a General Election scheduled for summer 2024, the Modi government has resisted the temptation to present a…
