Union Budget 2017 to boost living standards

The finance minister’s Budget will have a significant impact on the economy, boosting growth levels, improving the standard of living of millions of farmers in rural areas and providing enormous opportunities for the country’s youth.

The government’s decision to boost investments in the rural sector will see a major transformation in our villages and farms. The allocation for the rural, agriculture and allied sectors has jumped by nearly 25 per cent to Rs 1.87 lakh crore, a massive increase in crucial funding. A majority of Indians live in rural areas and rightly deserve to be the focus of the government’s efforts to improve the standard of living. Similarly, the urban poor have also been the key to the FM’s efforts to improve the quality of life.

The FM declared that his approach in preparing the budget was to spend more on rural areas, infrastructure and poverty alleviation with fiscal prudence. One of the thrust areas of his tax proposals is to stimulate growth, give relief to the middle class, promote affordable housing, curb black money, bring transparency in political funding and simplify tax administration. The allocation for infrastructure development, especially in the road and railways sectors, has gone up phenomenally to about Rs 4 lakh crore. These investments will boost development and also generate employment.

Significantly, the FM also referred to the new metro rail policy, which will also provide connectivity in our cities, besides generating new jobs to our youth. The budget also revealed a new trade infrastructure export scheme and announced steps that would convert India into a global hub for electronics manufacturing. The FM removed duties on components for devices for point of sales machines, biometric readers and iris scanners to encourage local production and encourage digital payments.

Both domestic and international investors have invested significant sums in putting up electronics manufacturing units in India over the past few years. I’m sure the new moves will boost these efforts of private entrepreneurs.Importantly, the finance minister focused on the much-needed aspect of clean politics in the country. He said the maximum cash donation that a political party can now take is Rs 2,000, down from Rs 20,000 stipulated earlier. The government wants to bring transparency into the political scene and would also introduce legislation relating to the issue of electoral bonds. Political parties will also need to file income-tax returns.

Yet another positive impact of the budget is the FM’s assertion that his agenda was to transform, energise and clean India. The FM’s bold, reforms-packed budget promises to make India one of the few bright spots in the world.