Budget with a vision for India at 100: Nirmala Sitharaman in RS

“We went in for a Budget which would stand for continuity, which will be bringing in stability to the economy and predictability in taxation and also a vision for India at 100,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.  

Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman responding to the discussion on the Union Budget 2022-23 in Rajya Sabha on Friday said that the Budget this year “stands for continuity, which will bring in stability to the economy and predictability in taxation.”

“We went in for a Budget which would stand for continuity, which will be bringing in stability to the economy and predictability in taxation and also a vision for India at 100,” Sitharaman said.

“The continuity point is critical at a point when the economy is coming out of the pandemic,” she added. The first part of the Budget Session of Parliament is set to end today for a month-long break, before reconvening on March 14.

She added, “Guidance which comes from PM Gati Shakti was essential as we needed to bring in greater synergy, greater complementarity between various infrastructure spending that we're undertaking.”

Responding to the discussion on the budget in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman further said, “Coming 25 years are going to be important for India. No wonder we're calling it Amrit Kaal. If we don’t have a vision for India at 100, we’ll suffer similarly as first 70 years, when 65 years were with Congress that had no vision except supporting, building and benefiting one family.”

Speaking about agriculture reforms, FM Nirmala Sitharaman said, “By bringing in drones, we are able to bring in efficiencies in the use of fertilisers, pesticides and also make a good technology-driven assessment of the crop density and also possibly predicting the size of the output.”

On Thursday, Sitharamam had said in the Lok Sabha that the urban employment rate is at the pre-pandemic level and the Indian economy is recovering fast. Earlier, the Opposition had accused the government of not doing enough for the poor and farmers in the budget.