New Delhi: The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman presented her second budget for 2020-2021 on Saturday. She announced some sops to cheer both corporate and aam admi in some way or the other, while at the same time it widened budget deficit targets for the current and next fiscal year to help spur growth.

Her budget was aimed at boosting incomes and enhancing purchasing power, stressing that the economy’s fundamentals were strong and inflation was well contained in the country. The deficit target for the coming fiscal year starting from April 1^st widened to 3.5 %, said Finance Minister. She also pegged net borrowings of Rs. 5.45 lakh crores and doubled target of raising revenue from the sale of Government stake in public sector undertakings to Rs. 2.1 lakh crores.

The most remarkable measures announced by the Government Budget 2020 include, cutting personal income tax on lower slabs, raising deposit insurance to Rs. 5 lakhs from Rs. 1 lakhs at present. The F.M in her budget scrapping dividend distribution tax to encourage corporate for more investments, spending more on Agriculture and rural sector, raising funds through listing of LIC, pegging fiscal deficit at 3.5 % of GDP in financial year 2021 etc. As far as fiscal deficit is concerned it is however expected the Government will miss its deficit goals for a third year, pushing the short fall to 3.8 % of GDP from a planned 3.3 % in the year ending March this year.

The Government also pegged the country’s nominal GDP Growth rate at 10 % in the next fiscal and capital expenditure is scaled up by 21 % to prop up the economy. Minister Sitaraman said in her budget that the receipts for 2020-2021 are pegged at Rs. 22.46 lakh crores, while expenditure at Rs. 30.42 lakh crores. The revised estimated expenditure for financial year 2020 has been pegged at Rs. 26.99 lakh crores and receipts at Rs. 19.32 lakh crores. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman also provided to boost domestic manufacturing in the country, she also raised import duty on a variety of products ranging from table ware and kitchen ware to electrical appliances to foot ware, furniture, stationary and toys.

While at the same time she provided funds to set up solar power generation units for farmers and set up cold storages to transport perishables. Keeping labour intensive sectors in MSME as critical for employment generation, she also pointed out that the cheap and low quality imports are an impediment to their growth. Special attention has been taken to put measured restraint on import of those items which are being produced by our MSMEs with better quality, she said. Customs duty is being raised on items like foot ware and furniture, she said.