BUDGET 2021 IN BRIEF!
Updated: Feb 23, 2021
Hey friends, thanks for dropping by again!
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A quick little back story: I know I am hella late for writing a brief review about the budget 2021, but lately I was caught up in a lot of college mess, finally getting time to write neatly what I had written on my rough notes.
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So, the budget 2021, to me I believe it was one of the most anticipated budget of all time, due to everyone expecting huge offerings for them because of how Covid-19 nearly destroyed the economy. And honestly, it surely lived up to the hype. So, what was in it for you? Let's find out.
FUN FACT: If you had invested in the right stocks just before budget, I am sure you would have piled up good money just like I did on my infra stocks.
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What's the first thing you noticed minutes before budget was going to be announced?
For me it was that the Finance Minster, Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman was holding a tablet instead of a normal papers to present the budget. This followed with a lot of stress on the word "digitization" through out the budget.
(Picture Courtesy: YourStory)
The headline on the Business Standard read "Nirmala Sitharaman replaces Swadeshi bahi khata with a tablet"
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Anyway, moving on, the focus of the budget was on the economic revival.
The major things which we can relate to, included:
Healthcare
Government announced that the spendings on healthcare will be increased by 135% to Rs. 2.2 lakh crore, from which Rs. 35,000 crore will be spent on vaccines only. Other than that a new scheme will be launched which will go by the name of PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana, in which Rs, 64,000 crore will be spent over the course of 6years to improve the public health systems across the country.
Note: The spendings will be done over 6years, and not for this financial year only.
(Picture Courtesy: OneIndia)
2. Privatization
The government made it clear, that they want to privatize many sectors, which basically means the PSUs ( Public Sector Undertaking) will be sold to private companies, meaning they will hold a stake higher than 50% in these PSUs.
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The finance minister named it Disinvestment and Strategic sale.
The PSUs in this include Air India, IDBI Bank, Shipping Corporation of India, Bharat Petroleum and many more.
Though it will be interesting to see, that will the government be able to privatize these PSUs in the short-term, since the Government is trying to privatize Air India from a long period of time, 3 years to be precise.
(Picture Courtesy: ewnsnews.com)
3. Middle class
I will make it short and precise with the help of bullets.
The government introduced a new cess, Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess.
For those of you who don't know what a cess is, A cess is a kind of tax charged over and above the base tax liability of a taxpayer.
Few things will get expensive on which the cess will be applied,
-Chickpeas (50%cess)
-Apple (35% cess)
-Peas (30% cess)
-Lentils (20% cess)
-Crude soybean (20% cess)
-Sunflower (20% cess)
-Cotton (5% cess)
-Urea (5% cess)
Other than this,
-Mobile phones will become expensive as custom duty on mobile parts and components have been increased by 2.5%.
-Automobile parts will become expensive as the custom duty will be increased to 15%.
-Solar invertors will become expensive as the custom duty will be increased to 20%.
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The one thing that might have been discussed in your household as we inched closer to the budget would have been the income tax increase. For those of you,
The government has not brought any changes in the income tax rates.
Senior citizens, aging 75+ will not need to file income tax returns. The banks will automatically do that.
(Picture Courtesy: NY Times)
4. Farmers & Workers
For Famers
Government has assured that the MSP will stay at 1.5times the cost of production.
For workers
The government has decided to launch a portal that will collect all data relating to construction workers, laborers and all these gig workers.
With government stepping in to make it an organized sector, we can expect that these workers will reap the benefits of social security, health insurance and many more.
(Picture Courtesy: DowntoEarth)
5. For Businesses
The definition of small businesses will be changed, as
Businesses having an annual turnover up to Rs. 20 crore will be called small businesses, where previously the cap was Rs. 2 crore. This will help many businesses, as small businesses have to go through a lot less paperwork.
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The government has decided that the companies having a turnover of Rs. 10 crore or less need not to get their tax audited from a CA, where previously the cap was Rs. 5 crore.
(Picture Courtesy: Open Business Council)
5. Education
For education there were a few notable announcements which I have stated below:
100 new Sainik schools will be set up across the country.
750 Eklavya schools to be set up in tribal areas across the country.
A central university for Ladakh.
(Picture Courtesy: The Statesman)
6. Cars
The notable announcement for cars were that:
Under vehicle scrappage policy old and unfit vehicles will be phased out.
Under this new policy,
Owners will be allowed to scrap their 20-year old vehicles and avail incentives on the purchase of new personal vehicles.
For commercial vehicles, the scrappage policy will be applicable for 15-year old commercial vehicles without a fitness certificate.
While it hasn't yet been specified, but private and commercial vehicles over 20 and 15 years old, respectively, will be required to undergo a fitness test at government's automated vehicle fitness centers.
(Picture Courtesy: Cars24)
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Conclusion
This was all what I had covered in my rough notes for the Budget 2021! I am sure I might have missed on a lot of things, but all that made relevance to me was discussed, and that's why this blog page is open to comments and discussions in the forum section.
This post included all those things which might be relevant to a common man or a first timer really getting to know, what the budget was all about.
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I don't know what you got out of the budget or what made you excited after it was announced, but for me it was hands down my sweet spot: The Stock Market.
Right out of budget, I made one of my biggest profits in the stock market, as there was a huge spike in the continuing bull run, which lifted Sensex and Nifty to an all time high.
The stock which made me make it was: Alright, I'mma give it to you, it was NCC: Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd.
The stock is currently trading at Rs.90.80 on the NSE, while I am writing this blog.
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Thanks for reading it. I will make sure to post content regularly. If you loved the content, in the bottom of this page is an option to subscribe to my blog page, which is member exclusive, absolutely free, where every month I will write an email newsletter with some thoughts, life lessons and links/screenshots to articles / books I enjoyed that month, which I'd love for you to join.
See you again.
Rayan.