BUDGET BRIEFINGS: Discussion on the Union Budget

The college organised a webinar “Budget Briefings: Discussion on the Union Budget”. The session was conducted by Sarvesh Mundra. He gave all the students brief impression on the budget. He highlighted certain points. In a year when the world was ravaged with the COVID19 pandemic.

Finance Minister gave health the attention it merited. Health allocation jumped 137% to Rs 2,23,846 crore in 2021-22 compared with Rs 94,452 crore in 2020-21. The Government provided Rs 35,000 crore for the Covid-19 vaccine, and promised to provide further funds, if required. While no changes have been proposed to the personal tax rates, the budget contains various relief measures and proposals to facilitate ease of compliance for the taxpayers. The budget also proposes taxing certain income such as interest accruing in relation to Provident Fund contributions exceeding specified limit, which are presently not subject to tax.

Mr. Vivek Bajaj, an alumnus of IIM and a chartered accountant, also a trader in capital markets. He picked up different sectors and the implication of the budget on those sectors. The Union Budget 2021 had a massive impact on the Indian markets on that day. The benchmark indices, which is Sensex and Nifty recorded the highest budget day gains in more than 2 decades. Nifty was up 4.74% to 14,281.2 and Sensex was up 5% to 48,600.61.

Prof. Mohit Agarwal, faculty of the college spoke about the tax proposals: The theme for the direct tax proposal was simplification of the tax administration, ease of compliance and reduction of litigation. The key aspects of the direct tax proposals impacting individual taxpayers are Extension of home loan interest tax break and Introduction of section 89A. Certain tax proposals include the Hon’ble Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented Finance Bill 2021 and accordingly some changes have been proposed in Indirect Tax Laws.

All the changes in the rate of tax has taken effect from the midnight of 1st of February 2021. Whereas all the amendments in the finance Bill 2021 will come into force from the date of notification issued by the authority.

There were 62 students who attended the webinar and the feedback collected at the end suggested that another webinar like this should be organised. 

 

Covered by – Ankush Ghosh