Today, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget in Parliament. This budget is extremely crucial for the economy because the nation is still struggling with the after-effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
At the start of the joint session of Parliament on Friday, PM Narendra Modi said the Finance Minister had already announced 3-4 mini budgets and that the 2021-22 Budget should be seen as an extension of the same effort. After an estimated 7.7% contraction in 2020-21, the Finance Ministry’s Economic Survey projects that India’s real GDP would record a growth of 11% in 2021-22. The nominal GDP growth has been estimated at 15.4% implying an assumption of 4.4% inflation during the year.
The Finance Minister has raised hopes by stating that Budget 2021-22 will “be a Budget like never before.” expectations are high, some tagged the budget as one that India hasn’t seen in 100 years, that the government will boost economic revival by focusing on infrastructure, healthcare, agriculture, rural economy, MSMEs sectors impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions.
This would be Sitharaman’s third budget under the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a significant departure from the tradition, this year’s Budget will be unique as it will be paperless.
