The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman presented the Budget 2020-21 on February 1, 2020. The budget focused on enhancing purchasing power of citizens and boosting their incomes. It has also given importance to technology and innovation to increase employment of the youths.
The Budget 2020 has been framed on two main pillars namely Fundamental Structural Reforms and Inclusive Growth.
Structural Reforms
The structural reforms include recapitalization of banks through IBC (Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code). The debt of the country has been reduced from 52.2% of GDP in 2014 to 48.7% of GDP in 2019.
GST Reforms
- Under GST, an average household saves 4% of its savings.
- In the year 2019-20, 60 lakh new tax payers were added, 40 crores of returns filed, 800 crore invoices uploaded and 105 e-way bills have been generated. GST helped to reducing the turnaround time for trucks by 20%.
- The Inspector Raj system has been vanished. Under this, the state and national permits including road tax, fitness certificate pollution certificate for trucks were removed.
Inclusive Growth
The Growth Rate was 4% in 1950s, 6% in 1980s and reached an average of 7.4% in 2016. The inflation for the period 2014-19 stood at 4.5%. Around 271 million people were brought out of poverty in 2006-16.
The Budget was presented on three themes.
Themes of the budget
The themes were
- Aspirational India-Better standards for all sections of the society in terms of Health, Education and better jobs
- Economic Development-Entails reforms across the economy by creating more space for the private sector
- Caring Society.
Under Aspiration India the budget covered
- Agriculture, Irrigation, Rural Development
- Education
- Water and Sanitation
Under Economic Development, the manufacturing sector, industries and skill development were focused. Under the Caring Society section, tourism, connectivity, vulnerable and old population were focused.