India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her team are getting ready to present the highly-anticipated budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year later on Saturday.
Outside the finance ministry, the entire budget-building team, including Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, was seen with Sitharaman.
#WATCH Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with the 'Bahi-Khata'. #Budget2020 ; She will present her second Budget today. pic.twitter.com/jfbSSHPMSy
— ANI (@ANI) February 1, 2020
This time too, Sitharaman has ditched a leather briefcase and opted for a traditional, hand-made red ledger with the national emblem on it to hold budget documents.
It is expected that the new budget will offer income tax incentives and allocate more funds to increase state spending on infrastructure in an attempt to revive economic growth, which hit a decade-low last year.
In an economic survey presented on Friday, it was predicted that the country's economic growth would increase from between 6.0-6.5 percent.
Meanwhile, Twitter is abuzz with politicians and business tycoons sharing their expectations from the budget, with some projecting it as a measure that will provide a “healing touch” to the general public and improve the state of the economy.
Our economic cancer needs immunotherapy not chemotherapy. We need to treat the causality not the symptoms - hope #Budget2020 takes this approach. Wealth creation is a key part of our economic immune system! Waiting eagerly to hear Fin Min @nsitharaman
— Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (@kiranshaw) February 1, 2020
#Budget2020 is the time for NDA govt to provide a healing touch to common people & industries, who have been facing hardships since noteban. Hope the budget fulfills expectations of common people and provide relief across sections.
— Ashok Gehlot (@ashokgehlot51) February 1, 2020
No economic revival can happen when Union ministers in the Modi govt and BJP leaders work actively to destroy Indian society. pic.twitter.com/XQToenlrPT
— Sitaram Yechury (@SitaramYechury) February 1, 2020
Budget2019=
— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) February 1, 2020
Consumption crashed,
Unemployment soared,
Farm distress surged,
Incomes declined,
Investments slumped,
Public spending fell,
GDP nose dived!
Yet, Modiji gave Corporate Tax Cuts of ₹1,45,000Cr
Let #Budget2020 give tax cuts to Salaried Class & invest in Rural India
The challenges that the finance minister is currently facing are falling revenues, low investment, and lacklustre growth.
The International Monetary Fund had previoulsy lowered India’s growth projection to 4.8 percent from 6.1 percent for the current financial year (April 2019-March 2020).
