Tag: Union Budget 2021

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Startup

Union Budget 2021-22: Here Is What the First Paperless Budget Has In Store for Business Start-Ups

Union Budget 2021: Key Takeaways for Start-Ups| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)
Union Budget 2021: Key Takeaways for Start-Ups| Representational Image (Photo Credits: Pixabay)

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the central government budget for the upcoming financial year 2021-22 in the parliament. The start-up sector also received a fair share of the estimated public expenditure for the fiscal year set ti begin from April 1, this year. To encourage budding start-up owners and aspiring business person, several steps have been proposed by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget that unveiled in the Lok Sabha yesterday. The allocation for Startup India initiative has been increased marginally to Rs 20.83 crore for the fiscal 2021-22 from  Rs 20 crore in 2020-21.

Mostly importantly, Sitharaman proposed to provide an extension of tax holiday to start-up owners for one additional year upto March 31, 2022. Along with this, he eligibility period of claiming capital gains exemption for investment made in the startups has also been extended till March 31, 2022. Union Budget 2021: Here Is What the First Paperless Budget Has In Store for the MSME Sector.

In the Union Budget 2021-22, Nirmala Sithraman has also proposed to set up a ‘world class’ Fintech (Finance-Technology Firms) park at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, near state’s capital Gandhinagar. It has also been proposed to apportion a sum of Rs 15,000 to enhance the penetration of digital payments as well as other measures to boost financial inclusion.

For making legal compliance and regulations easier, the finance minister has proposed to use data analytics, artificial intelligence, machine learning to make regulatory filings more frictionless for businesses and startups in a revamp of the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) portal. Centre had said that the ministry would look to introduce AI-based features in MCA-21 when version 3.0 of the portal is rolled out. Union Budget 2021 Highlights: The 5 Big Takeaways.

MCA-21 shares crucial information about firms to various stakeholders such as the regulators, investors, creditors and companies. The MCA-21 3.0 will reportedly have various process to ease the regulatory process. It is expected to have a single source of truth, ease of doing business, e-adjudication, online compliance monitoring, among others, thereby making the authenticity and comprehensiveness of corporate affairs even better.

For the start-ups and initiatives in the healthcare and wellness sector, the Budget has proposed to allocate a sum of Rs 2.23 Lakh Crore. It includes a healthcare portal for the entire country for digital health management, as well as a Mission Poshan 2.0 for nutrition and diet programmes in rural districts.

Categories
MSME

Union Budget 2021: Here Is What the First Paperless Budget Has In Store for the MSME Sector

union budget-2021
Union Budget 2021-22 | Representational Image

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the central government’s Budget for the upcoming financial year 2021-22 in the Parliament. The MSME sector got a fair share of the estimated public expenditure for the next fiscal year set to begin from April 1 this year. In the budget unveiled today in Lok Sabha, Sitharaman has allocated a fund of over Rs 15,000 Crore to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, which stands at double the amount apportioned to the sector last fiscal. “We have taken a number of steps to support the MSME sector in this budget. I have provided Rs 15,700 crore more than double the previous year,” said the Finance Minister. Union Budget 2021: How the post-COVID Budget will Impact the Corporates & Common Taxpayers?

The budget has also slashed the custom duty rates on various commodities to support the MSMEs affected by the COVID-19 induced economic slowdown. Customs duty on semis, flat, and long products of non-alloy, alloy, and stainless steels has been reduced to 7.5 per cent uniformly as per the Union Budget for 2021-22.  “To provide relief to metal recyclers, mostly MSMEs, I am exempting duty on steel scrap for a period up to March 31, 2022. Further, I am also revoking ADD and CVD on certain steel products,” said Nirmala Sitharaman.

The custom duties on steel screws and plastic builder wares has been increased from 10 per cent to 15 per cent while on prawn feed it has increased to 15 per cent from the existing 5 per cent. Meanwhile the duty on cooper scrap has been halved from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. For MSMEs dealing in the textile industry,  nylon chain has been made in par to polyester and other artificial fabrics as part of easing duty on raw materials and inputs.Union Budget 2021: Healthcare, Infrastructure will remain in the limelight!

In order to provide budgetary incentives to the promoters and exporters of garments, leather and handicraft products that are in the MSME sector, Nirmala Sitharaman announced the withdrawal of exemptions on imports of some types of leathers as they are manufactured domestically in quality and quantity.

Apart from the above measures, the finance minister has announced the establishment of a special framework for MSMEs for debt resolution. To resolve cases faster, the NCLT framework will also be strengthened including the implementation of the e-Courts system from the businesses in the sector. An additional year of tax holiday has also been provided to the affordable housing business.

Categories
Finance

Union Budget 2021 Expectations: What India’s Aviation Sector is Expecting?

Aviation Sector (Photo Credits: Pexels)

The novel coronavirus pandemic has majorly affected the aviation sector. The industry incurred severe losses after thousands of flights daily came to a standstill in March 2020. To cope with this, the sector is hoping for support from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the 2021 Budget on February 1.

From lowering air turbine fuel taxes (ATF) to reducing airport, landing, parking and navigation charges- the industry is expecting help from the government. The ATF comprises around 30-40 per cent of the total cost of an airline.

The sector is also expecting the government to remove a cap on fare prices. A fare cap price band was introduced in order to avoid exploitation by airlines. However, the sector now believes that the government should remove the price band and airlines should be allowed to set ticket prices.

“Since the airlines have to currently follow a fare band as per the directives of the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), which is constraining their ability to charge higher fares, they want relaxations in terms of the fares they can charge,” said Kinjal Shah, vice president, ICRA.

Recently, the government also hintend at rationalisation of various taxes in the aviation sector. “We are working on a long-term plan to help the sector by rationalizing various taxes,” said Usha Padhee, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation. As of now, the government has allowed airlines to run on 80 per cent capacity, after starting out with 33 per cent in May 2020.

 

Categories
Finance

Union Budget 2021 Should Focus More on Growth Recovery; Fiscal Deficit May Fall to 6.2 Percent in FY22, Says Report

budget 2021-2022

Mumbai, January 28: The annual Union Budget is round the corner. The Union Budget is slated to be presented on Monday, February 1, 2021 while the Economic Survey will be tabled on Friday, January 29, 2021. All eyes will be on the forthcoming Union Budget as it is expected to focus more on putting the economy back on track. According to a report by India Ratings, the focus of the budget will be to get back things to normalcy and not too much on arresting fiscal deficit, which is seen at 6.2 percent in 2021-22, down from 7 percent this year.

The Union Budget 2020-21 had estimated fiscal deficit at Rs 7.96 lakh crore or 3.5 percent of GDP but India Ratings sees it printing in at Rs 13.44 lakh crore or 7 percent if the government cleared its payables and roll over some portion of expenditure to 2021-22.

India Ratings Chief Economist Devendra Pant said that the 2021-22 budget is likely to project a fiscal deficit of 6.2 percent but that will be achievable if nominal growth comes in around 14 percent and real growth prints in at 9.5-10 percent. The study pegged growth at 9.6 per cent for 2021-22 and (-)7.8 per cent for the current financial year 2020-21.

The report said that the fiscal impact of the economic packages worked out to be about Rs 3.5 lakh, or 1.8 percent of GDP. Even without this package, Ind-Ra had estimated that FY21 will witness a revenue shortfall of Rs 60,000 crore due to aggressive estimation of revenue receipts, it added. The government adopted a lose fiscal policy due to the coronavirus pandemic and announced a number of policy measures under Atmanirbhar Bharat packages to support the economy. The report adds that as per the grant-wise expenditure trend, the report estimates revenue expenditure in 2020-21 to be Rs 26.65 lakh crore as against a Budget Estimate of Rs 26.30 lakh crore.