by Harish Gupta, National Editor, Lokmat Group
special report
PM burning midnight oil on Budget
Holding one-to-one meetings with Industry Honchos and all
PM's “Bold Budget” in the making
Harish Gupta
New Delhi, Jan. 20
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is burning midnight oil and closely monitoring every key proposal in the making of the Union Budget to be presented on February 1. The grapevine has it that the Prime Minister is summoning every key secretary in the Finance Ministry and discussing in detail impact of proposals to be incorporated in the Budget. He has met secretaries of other key ministries personally to
look into every nitty-gritty.
The Prime Minister is aware of the fact that the coming Budget is being looked upon by various sector with tremendous hope in the wake of slow-down in the economy and job losses. Every sector is looking up to the Prime Minister in the Budget. Though the Prime Minister deployed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to address issues relating to various sectors and she tried her best. But somehow, she failed to infuse confidence and the Prime Minister took the command in his own hands.
If he met the top industrialists in a group ten days ago without the aide and assistance of Nirmala Sitharam, he is reported to have held one-to-one meetings with top honchos to understand what exactly should be done to cheer up the sentiments. Since the fundamentals of the economy are fine, the Prime Minister wants specific ideas and steps to be taken.
The PM also met economists collectively at the NITI Aayog meeting and individually also many of them. He had wide-ranging consultations with other stake holders; be it real estate, NBFCs, infrastructure and others.
He held a series of meetings with the Council of Ministers .
It is clear that Modi wants to make his “Make in India” program a grand success and revive the Indian industrial sector in a big way by curtailing imports on more than 200 items. His focus is not only sin goods but other bulk items which are being dumped in Indian bazars.
In order to infuse confidence in the Corporate sector, he has directed the Corporate Affairs Ministry headed by Nirmala Sitharaman to de-criminalized as much as 50% such clauses. The government had imposed Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) tax in last year's budget. Now this may be tweaked to bring in at par with global practices. There is demand that Dividend Distribution Tax be scrapped which is currently at 20.56% or reduce it.The personal Income-Tax rate may be cut to some extent to boost the purchasing power.
The PM's watchful eye forced the Nirmala Sitharaman ministry to withdraw the ITR forms she had issued causing serious anxiety among the tax payers. The PM wants to punish some over-jealous officers in the revenue department. But now it will be after the Budget session.
By all accounts, it will be the PM's “Bold Budget” to be read by the FM.
Ends
