[Sran]

Originally Posted by Theyota

I hope the regime realizes that we have a massive jobs and earnings crises and it is a ticking time bomb. There is a huge section of society that is being left behind with no jobs or earnings growth. A single mediocre illness has capability of taking many families towards bankruptcy or debt traps.

The booming job market talk that we see in the IT folks thread with people bickering about their 5 million INR salaries covers only a small fraction of a percent. A major section of our society still earns the same salaries that they were earning a decade back. The whole of unorganized industry has not kept up with inflation. Of the two part time drivers my parents use, one of them is a part time lecturer and another one is a BCom graduate. One of them is from from weaker sections of our society and is eligible for all kinds of reservations and still has no decent job.

Without being political, my personal opinion is that the current regime has never had a professional finance minister from day one and has also ran away any financial/economic professional worth his dime. I cannot think of a single growth engine at the grass roots level. There is a lot of hype and propaganda with small things here and there.

This is I suppose a comment made in ignorance. One thing about propaganda is that it takes more energy to refute than to spread, it's called Brandolini's law.

So let us see what this "regime" and not a democratically elected government has done for financial inclusion that is having and will have massive long term benefit in future for the poorest of Indians.


Jan Dhan Yojana: 99% of households have at least 1 bank account.

Direct Benefit Transfer: Together with Jan Dhan and Aadhar, DBT cuts the middle man from government benefit transfers and puts benefits directly into the bank accounts of those in need.

MUDRA: Micro-financing for 120 million people to encourage entrepreneurship and small businesses. 90 million of the beneficiaries were women
Ease of Doing Business: Ranking jumped from 142 to 63 in 7 years.

Digital Banking: Erstwhile governments laughed at the thought of digital economy. Now even tea sellers are accepting digital payments. Poor households now have access to financial savings, monetary security, and business opportunity – something that has alluded them for decades since India’s inception. The compounding effect of wealth creation has been buttressed by a direct deliverance of welfare, which has been hampered in the past by corruption.

Inflation was successfully tamed in the last 2019 till Wuhan Virus made a dent. Both CPI and WPI never went above 5%, which is within the range prescribed by MPC. This is a far cry compared to @004-14 era when inflation was in near double digits for 6 consecutive years.The Average inflation in India during 2014-2018 was 4.7%,whereas it was around 10.1% in 2009-2014. Inflation now is 5.80%.

Foreign reserve: Comfy at around 700 Billion Dollars (3rd in world).

LED distribution: again significant contribution from energy savings to cost cut.
IBC: The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code has begun to transform the Indian NPA resolution process and its credit culture. Creation of Bad Banks.

RERA again benefiting the consumers.

Increased Formalisation and Taxation base of the economy.Due to GST and Demo, Tax-to-GDP ratio has improved remarkably.

Mission Indradhanush: Immunisation of around 2.55 crore children from 12 deadly diseases. It has been lauded by even International organisations. Mission Indradhanush upped vaccine coverage growth rate from 1% a year to 6.7%, a rare success.

Under the Jan Aushadhi scheme, 8000+ Jan Aushadhi Kendras are selling medicines at affordable and cheap prices and around 1700 medical items have been added to existing list of medicines available. The Jan Aushadi Scheme saw only 80 stores till March 31, 2014, and only 100 medical items were added between 2008-14.Plus, prices of stents have been capped to prevent extortion from patients.

E-NAM: Reforming agricultural markets, which introduces transparency and competition to agricultural market, removing the middlemen from the process.

BharatNet programme: the government had ensured broadband connectivity to 1.56 lakh GPs, with the central government contributing over Rs 61,000 crore towards the scheme in phase one. Although as part of the UPA’s plan 300,000 km of optical fibre network was to be laid until 2014, only a dismal 350 km could be laid.

Now there are roads and infra, housing, electricity, solar, and how we tackled Wuhan virus which is still decimating the global economic powerhouses. I could go on and on but please read the ground to understand the reality.

We had an economist as leader, a person who has been at the helm for 40 years and shaped modern Indian economy but yet 7 years back it was in ruin. The first FM was a science student and an ICS officer. Don't think TTK ji or Desai ji or Chavan ji were economists either. Hon'ble ex FM Shri R. venkataraman was also not an economist. Except eminet DR. Gadgil(67-71)and Dr. Lakdawala (77-80) none of the Deputy chairman of planning commission were economist, commission's chairman is always the PM. We all know what we achieved back then. My father waited 5 years for his Priya Scooter and then ultimately paid a premium to get it.

[V.Narayan]

Overall a sensible budget philosophy. Glad to see the Budget is getting beyond tinkering with tax slabs and rates. The thinking had more altitude with a focus on digitization, dis-investment, infrastructure and focus on capital expenditure. Of course with all things Government the devil lies in the implementation. But in her 4 years this on the surface seems like the most mature budget presented by the current FM. Glad they seem to have stayed away from a populist (State) election budget. No new negative is all that the bourses wanted!

Policy on scrapping automobiles and proposal to incentivize business of swapping batteries and providing battery power as a service.

[saisree]

A flat budget, not a populist one as expected. No changes to the direct taxes.

Welcome the expenditure on the Infrastructure
1. 400 Vande Bharat express trains,
2. 25000 Kms of road in to National Highways,
3. 2000 Kms of Rail Network
4. 100 New Cargo terminals

Some concentration and boost for EV and Solar Power sectors

[v1p3r]

I'm just glad it they didn't make things worse. As is tradition, I'm going to rate this budget 7/10.

Originally Posted by saisree

A flat budget, not a populist one as expected. No changes to the direct taxes.

This is as populist as it can get. There isn't enough money for populist measures.

Interesting to see the mention of and subsequent provisions for mental health. Given our culture of treating mental health issues as either non-existent or shameful, I am very glad and grateful that this budget took up this topic.

The crypto thing is hilarious.

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

. The crypto thing is hilarious.

It is simply based on the belief:

Your profits are my profits too; Your losses are solely yours!

Regarding crypto currencies and similar digital instruments, lot more clarity was expected. Without saying whether these new age asset classes are law-bound, it is wrong to bring them under the ambit of taxation.

But then, taxing them could actually be the government's way of legitimizing them.

[kadanaJ]

I'm not an expert at understanding politics, so when someone writes a detailed post, I see it as an opportunity to learn something.

Sran wrote a nice detailed paragraph to reply to you. Everyone may not agree with it, but at least he put time and effort into his post.

You've tried to reduce his argument through a poor attempt at humour. Don't call it propoganda. Tell people what part of it and why it is propoganda.

Please post counterpoints of your own that add value, and will allow a healthy discussion.

Apologies for coming off as strong, but when I see someone's high effort post get reduced by a one-liner, I think it is the wrong way of having discourse.

There's an interesting article about how debate should occur and fallacies that should be avoided.

https://www.shanesnow.com/articles/i...dishonesty-toc

[AirbusCapt]

The thing which I need clarity on is the tax on crypto. When crypto is not yet legalised on what basis has the government decided to tax it? If the government bans crypto tomorrow, will all the tax payers he able to sue the government for extortion?
Also why not a captial gains tax on crypto profits? A direct flat 30% tax means you wipe out the market since a trader needs to gain a minimum of 36% to offset tax plus inflation on any transaction. Also in this methodology, the losses will be taxed as well..

[Pancham]

Originally Posted by AirbusCapt

The thing which I need clarity on is the tax on crypto. When crypto is not yet legalised on what basis has the government decided to tax it? If the government bans crypto tomorrow, will all the tax payers he able to sue the government for extortion?
Also why not a captial gains tax on crypto profits? A direct flat 30% tax means you wipe out the market since a trader needs to gain a minimum of 36% to offset tax plus inflation on any transaction. Also in this methodology, the losses will be taxed as well..

In principle, there is (and should not be) no connect between the government’s ability to tax something and whether that activity is legal or not. If it were true, a citizen with illegal income can contest that his illegal income is not taxable at all.

So it doesn’t matter if crypto is legal or not.

[saikarthik]

Slightly OT from the current discussion, but I noticed that the interest payments are 20% of our expenses. Can anyone with knowledge here explain whether is it going down or up?

And also, borrowings have increased tremendously. I heard many economists saying that it's good to borrow more which leads to more economic growth, provided we keep things in control. Can anyone elaborate?

[vasanthn21]

Consider me old school - I still have trouble understanding how Crypto works. But, I am not so rigid that I do not accept something just because I do not understand it.
I see that Crypto currency has certain benefits and it is good to see the Government deciding to launch its own "Digital Rupee". It might take some time for me to understand how it will work, but it is definitely a welcome move.
Side note: Wonder if the "Digital Rupee" will also increase in value like the crypto currencies? Will Digital Rupee exist in parallel to normal Rupee? If yes, can I demand payment in Digital Rupee instead of normal Rupee for a transaction?
Can the experts on this topic can shed some light on this?

[Naetik30]

Originally Posted by Sran

T

Direct Benefit Transfer: Together with Jan Dhan and Aadhar, DBT cuts the middle man from government benefit transfers and puts benefits directly into the bank accounts of those in need.

A quick reality check on DBT.

In my home town, there is a SBI customer point. You will see a dozen really aged people (you will feel sorry, just looking at them) in the mornings almost every day. In case you are wondering they are here to collect their old age pension of a few thousands.

Now for the eye opener, for everyone that believe Jan Dhan and DBT have solved all corruption in India -

1. The person who runs the SBI customer point has collected the account books + cards of all these people long ago (pretty much as soon as the accounts were created).

2. Every month, the people turn up to collect the pension, they are either turned away that the government has not yet credited (or) paid a couple of hundred and asked to move on. And with a stern warning or a nasty comment to go along with the couple of hundred that they collected.

3. Of course the agent collects the necessary signatures.

Where there is money.. there is a way. No matter what.

Note: This is a first hand account. Not some made up stuff.

[AirbusCapt]

Originally Posted by Pancham

In principle, there is (and should not be) no connect between the government’s ability to tax something and whether that activity is legal or not. If it were true, a citizen with illegal income can contest that his illegal income is not taxable at all.

So it doesn’t matter if crypto is legal or not.

In one shot the government has finished the crypto trade market in India. With an average daily movement of 8/9% there is no feasible way for a trader to make enough money to pay a 30% tax. Most of the folks who had lost their jobs were supplementing their income by crypto and stock trading, this government has destroyed their main source of earnings.

[m8002?]

Originally Posted by vasanthn21

Wonder if the "Digital Rupee" will also increase in value like the crypto currencies? Will Digital Rupee exist in parallel to normal Rupee? If yes, can I demand payment in Digital Rupee instead of normal Rupee for a transaction?
Can the experts on this topic can shed some light on this?

I am no expert, but isnt currency already digital? Your account balance is just a number somewhere in the bank's computer network. There is no physical currency in a locker for each rupee you have in your bank account/mutual fund ( though it can be arranged on demand ). And if you are using UPI, you are already transacting the digital Rupee.

So I am still not sure what additional leverage the new "digital rupee" will provide.

Originally Posted by Pancham

In principle, there is (and should not be) no connect between the government’s ability to tax something and whether that activity is legal or not. If it were true, a citizen with illegal income can contest that his illegal income is not taxable at all.

So it doesn’t matter if crypto is legal or not.

How is this true? So its fine if a person makes some money through illegal means (smuggling, extortion, whatever ) and pay a 30% tax to govt? If crypto is not declared legal, what the govt. is doing is just partaking in the illegal activity.

The govt. can only tax legal income. There cannot be an area where the govt. tells, we are not sure if its legal, but just pay the 30% tax to us.

[vasanthn21]

Originally Posted by m8002?

I am no expert, but isnt currency already digital? Your account balance is just a number somewhere in the bank's computer network. There is no physical currency in a locker for each rupee you have in your bank account/mutual fund ( though it can be arranged on demand ). And if you are using UPI, you are already transacting the digital Rupee.

So I am still not sure what additional leverage the new "digital rupee" will provide.

Here by Digital Rupee, the Govt. is talking of its own crypto currency. And hence my question.

Agree with your point that currency is already digital for most practical applications.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by Naetik30

A quick reality check on DBT.

In my home town, there is a SBI customer point.

I somehow feel the customer point business is some sort of a scam to carry out illegal transactions outside of the bank. By definition, the SBI CSP is like a mini bank for carrying out limited transactions and sourcing business. Makes sense in places where you don't have access to a proper bank. But I have seen service points right next to or even in the same building where there is an SBI branch, in a city like Bangalore where there is a bank in every corner. And these service points always seem to be crowded with a lot of cash transactions happening.