We are putting money where assets will be created: Nirmala Sitharaman

It is better to use the additional leeway available under the FRBM law to push spending towards asset creation, she said. Capital expenditure is set to rise 18.1 per cent to Rs 4.12 lakh crore in Budget Estimate for 2020-21 over 2019-20 revised estimate. Government has also announced a pipeline of infrastructure projects to be done over the next five years.

“The money being raised through disinvestment will go towards infrastructure creation,” she said.

The Budget 2020-21 presented Saturday announced an ambitious disinvestment agenda, aiming to raise Rs 2.1 lakh crore through stake sales next year, including plans to sell part of the Centre’s stake in the country’s largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) through an initial public offer (IPO).

The Centre also proposed to sell the government’s equity in the stressed IDBI Bank to private, retail and institutional investors through the stock exchange.

For the current year, the government has revised down the disinvestment target to Rs 65,000 crore in RE from Rs 1.05 lakh crore in BE.

Even as the government has taken additional leeway to expand the deficit by 0.5 percentage points, it is not splurging money like it was done in the past (2008-09) when the previous government expanded the deficit massively, she said. The entire Budget has tried to ensure that the steps are completely thought through and there is a blueprint to revive growth.

The government breached the fiscal deficit target by 0.5 percentage points to 3.8 per cent of GDP for 2019-20. For the next financial year, it is pegged at 3.5 per cent of the GDP as against the earlier estimate of 3.4 per cent.

On boosting trust between the taxpayer and the taxmen, she said the government has over the years expanded the usage of technology to make the tax system objective. Earlier, speaking at the same event, Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar also stressed that the Budget making process was based on promoting a trust-based environment and that the government did not go overboard in making any projections. He said the direct tax dispute resolution scheme has been designed to end litigation with government and that directions have been issued to banks to differentiate between genuine business failure and fraud.

Elaborating on details of the Budget, Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Atanu Chakraborty said that the Union Budget has not considered the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of telecom companies while making the budget calculations.

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