Nirmala Sitharaman unveils Budget aimed at boosting incomes; introduces alternative tax regime to simplify taxation; full text of her speech

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday unveiled the budget for fiscal 2020-21, vowing to boost income of Indians and their purchasing power, in a bid to revive domestic economic growth that has slumped. India estimates economic growth this fiscal year, which ends on 31 March, will slip to 5 percent - its weakest pace since the global financial crisis of 2008-09. The government also raised fiscal deficit target to 3.8 percent of the GDP from 3.3 percent pegged earlier for 2019-20 due to revenue shortage. The Budget also unveiled measures aimed at facilitating growth of the country’s micro, small and medium enterprises including raising the turnover threshold for audit of their accounts to Rs 5 crore and a scheme to provide subordinate debt to MSME entrepreneurs. The finance minister also had several sops for the agriculture sector, as she said that the government would inject nearly $40 billion into the sprawling farm sector and billions more into a federal water scheme to get broader economic growth back up from its lowest in a decade. Sitharaman also set aside 690 billion rupees for the health sector, up marginally from last year’s allocation as the government seeks to implement an ambitious scheme to provide health insurance for millions of people. Here is the full text of the are the budget speech:

Budget Speech by Sukanya Ray on Scribd