The government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is all set to present the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament.
This year's budget will be presented at a time when the country's economy has taken a fresh knock due to the third wave of Covid-19 pandemic. From laymen to industry experts, all are expecting Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to announce relief measures in the upcoming budget on February 1.
The biggest session will begin on January 31 with the address of President Ram Nath Kovind to the joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament.
The two Houses of Parliament will meet at separate times of the day for five hours each -- Rajya Sabha in the first half and Lok Sabha in the second half -- to ensure Covid distancing norms during the Budget Session
The Union Budget will be presented on February 1, 2022. The Lok Sabha will meet on February 1 for the presentation of the Union Budget. Subsequently, it will meet from 4 pm to 9 pm from February 2 to February 11, when the session will go on a recess.
The second part of the session will be from March 14 to April 8. But the timings of sittings are not yet clear for Part II of the session.
Nirmala Sitharaman will deliver her fourth Budget speech at 11 am on February 1. The budget speech generally lasts for close to the two-hour mark.
You can watch Sitharaman's Budget 2022 speech from 11 am on February 1. The Budget 2022 speech will be aired on Sansad TV - the official parliament channel. National broadcaster Doordarshan will also air the Budget 2022 speech.
You can also watch the Union Budget 2022 speech on YouTube channel of Sansad TV. People can also tune in to India Today TV to catch the live speech of the finance minister.
On one hand, the ambition to become a $5-trillion economy by 2025 and, on the other, the risk of another lockdown and supply disruptions amid rising COVID cases across the country, the finance ministry has quite a task to manage and deliver a pragmatic budget on February 1, 2022.
While the capacity utilisation by private sector remains below 70 percent and does not seem to pick up at least in the next few quarters, the government needs to continue spending to boost consumption and keep aggregate demand higher.
The government needs to aim for increasing funds flow through foreign direct investment (FDI), asset monetisation and disinvestments to cover its fiscal deficit for the next budget year. On a macro level, developing manufacturing, textile and infrastructure sectors which are large employment generators, having trickledown effect on a lot of ancillary industries including SME and MSME should remain a priority.
To boost the growth, our economy needs investments. The investment can either come from FDI or through shifting domestic savings into mainstream economy. The later can happen through reducing frictions in investing into financial assets. Simpler and centralised KYC to invest across all financial assets, increase in limit to invest in tax-saving mutual funds from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 2 lakh would be a positive step in this direction.
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