Budget: Focus on Growth; Major Announcements Before 2024 Elections

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• Feb 1, 2023 | Dhupali Das

Budget 2023: Markets in India, Asia's third-largest economy, will be closely watched when Sitharaman begins her Budget speech at 11 a.m...

Digital Desk: The Union Budget for Fiscal 2024, which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present, will lay the foundation for India's economic growth at the forecast rate of 6.8 percent. This is Sitharaman's fifth budget presentation since 2019.

Here is a 10-point overview of this important topic:

1. Undoubtedly, the middle class in India is seeking some type of income tax relief. Despite the fact that the tax brackets were not changed and no new deductions were announced last year, inflation has eaten into people's earnings. They haven't seen a change in tax rate since 2017-18 and in tax slab since July 2014.

2. Sitharaman may be able to afford a balanced, rather than populist, budget because the general election is still a year and one more Union Budget away. Nonetheless, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP seeking a third consecutive term, massive welfare programmes for farmers and the rural population are not out of the question.

3. The Finance Ministry had considered raising the limit under 80C, which includes investments in life insurance, fixed deposits, bonds, real estate, and public provident funds. If this happens, it will encourage people to save and help people whose savings were stripped away during the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. Markets in India, Asia's third-largest economy, will be closely watched when Sitharaman begins her Budget speech at 11 a.m. Last week, Adani group companies led most of the fluctuations, but on Tuesday, its 20,000 crore follow-on share sale went through smoothly, providing relief to the group, which is facing fraud allegations from US-based short-seller Hindenburg.

5. The Modi government may strengthen its "Make in India" and "Atmanirbhar Bharat" policies by providing financial incentives to manufacturers and suppliers who want to establish a business in India. India has been positioning itself as a global supply chain alternative to China.

6. After a slow but steady recovery last year, the real estate sector expects the government to announce favourable schemes and tax breaks to improve its wealth. The goods and services tax, or GST, the council reduced the tax rate on affordable housing from 8% to 1% in 2019. Similar announcements are expected in this Budget as well.

7. Over half of the Indian population is under the age of 30. For them, the emphasis would be on job security and lower taxes on products they prefer to purchase, such as electronic goods. Better terms for education loans and other forms of financial assistance for school and higher education will be closely monitored.

8. Due to global supply issues, unseasonal rains and floods, the effects of climate change, and the war in Ukraine, the farm sector faced difficult times in 2022. Sitharaman would most likely have something in place to cushion them from all of these blows. Farmers, after all, constitute a sizable and influential voter base.

9. Sitharaman may pick up where she left off with the "digital rupee," which was first announced as a possible alternative to cryptocurrencies in last year's Budget. Crypto trades have recently become extremely popular all over the world, albeit risky due to a regulatory grey area. The Finance Minister may give a status update on the "digital rupee".

10. Bloomberg predicts that the long-term capital gains tax will be extended to immovable property and unlisted shares, that oil retailers will be compensated for selling fuel at below-market prices, that import taxes on gold will be reduced to 10% to discourage illegal shipments and that the defence budget will be increased in response to border tensions with China.