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Budget 2022 kept growth at its core, say experts
NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for 2022-23, on Tuesday, keeping the focus on driving economic growth.
In her budget speech, the finance minister said the Budget while focusing on growth also lays a blueprint for Amrit Kaal, which is futuristic and inclusive. This will benefit youth, women, farmers, scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. And big public investment for modern infrastructure, readying India at 100.
Mayank Bathwal, CEO, Aditya Birla Health Insurance said, “This year, the budget has kept growth at its core along with a focus on rapid digitisation. The announcement of the National Digital Health Ecosystem is a path breaking step that will aid in creating a digital backbone for an integrated healthcare delivery in India. This digitalisation drive will enable deeper penetration and acceptance of health insurance, improve accessibility while also making it affordable.”
Adding to it, Krishnan Ramachandran, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Niva Bupa Health Insurance, said that rolling out the National Digital Health Ecosystem can transform the healthcare scenario in the country as it will help to provide universal access from a unified platform. This will help streamline the healthcare process and enable people to secure tertiary and secondary care from a single point interface. “These steps will also provide job creation opportunities in the healthcare market and help India march towards the ambition of a 5-trillion economy since health care ultimately impacts the capacity and the ability of any country to become a fast-developing economy,” said Ramachandran.
Besides, Sanjiv Bajaj, Jt. Chairman & MD, Bajaj Capital said, “Budget 2022 appears to be a well-crafted growth-oriented budget to promote overall economic activity in the country. With several proposals around capital expenditure, National Digital Health Ecosystem, job creation, and more, Budget 2022 is bringing the focus back on digitisation, infrastructure, affordable housing, development of MSMEs, and the farm economy.”
The FM also said that a part of the government’s overall market borrowings in 2022-23, sovereign Green Bonds will be issued for mobilizing resources for green infrastructure. The proceeds will be deployed in public sector projects which help in reducing the carbon intensity of the economy.
Bajaj said, “We appreciate the long-term steps taken to strengthen the economy by increasing the infrastructure expenditure & capital investment however an immediate boost to the economy was not given which could have been done by reducing and capping the personal tax rate to 25% which would have given the masses more money in hand for spending which would have given an immediate boost to economy and employment. “Moreover, with the reduction of corporate tax rate the Governments tax collections have not gone down but increased by 47% over last year and 16.5% over the previous year. The tax-paying public of India is very keen to see a reduction and capping of personal taxes which in the long term would mean higher tax collections and an eventual end to the cash economy,” said Bajaj.
However, Bajaj also said, “Our view is that the government should have reduced personal income tax so that more money is there in the hands of the taxpayer. This would have led to higher spending thus pushing consumption in the economy. That would have given an immediate push to the economy for long-term effects. However overall, the budget is progressive and on the back of buoyant tax collections, the country seems to be all set to move to a higher growth trajectory in the years ahead.”
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