The Union Budget for the years 2022-23 is about to be presented. Every year, it is one of the most eagerly awaited government statements. The paper is known as the 'Annual financial statement' in more technical terms. It is "a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India for that year," according to Article 112 of the Indian Constitution.
According to the budget, the fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31. The finance minister presents the budget. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to present it in 2022. Every year on February 1st, it is delivered. It was previously presented on the last business day of February. Then-Finance Minister Arun Jaitley altered the rule. The budget is presented about 11 a.m., as opposed to 5 p.m. in the past when it was delivered per British time.
The budget session will begin on January 31, 2022, with the president's address to both houses. The session will be divided into two parts, the first of which will end on February 11, 2022. Part two of the session would begin on March 14, 2022, and end on April 8, 2022, following a month-long recess.
The budget is divided into two categories. The revenue budget discusses revenue receipts as well as revenue expenditures. And the Capital Budget discusses capital expenditures and receipts. The revenue budget is primarily comprised of recurrent transactions, such as tax collections. The capital budget includes transactions that don't happen regularly, such as a loan from the RBI to the government.
In India, the budget that is presented is usually a deficit budget. Simply put, this means that the government's spending exceeds its receipts. The deficit is financed through a variety of methods, including borrowing and bond sales.
The Economic Survey is critical in establishing the budget framework. K.V. Subramanian, the current Chief Economic Advisor, will leave his post on December 17. As a result, the new CEA will be in charge of the majority of the Economic Survey's work. The government has yet to announce a replacement. The Economic Survey is a report issued by the federal government that details the state of the economy over the previous year, as well as the major difficulties it anticipates and potential remedies. The Economic Survey 2021-22 is expected to be released following the president's address on January 31, according to the report.
Aside from Finance Minister Sitharaman, names like TV Somanathan (Finance Secretary), Tarun Bajaj (Revenue Secretary), and Ajay Seth (Revenue Secretary) are on the list of those in charge of next year's budget (Economic Affairs Secretary).
Despite a slew of initiatives aimed at SMEs, they continue to bear large costs as a result of COVID-19-related business interruptions. The current government has always favoured the growth of SMEs and pushed the concepts of ease of doing business and tax simplification.
In light of this, the industry anticipates the finance minister focusing on reducing compliance burdens, rationalising GST rates, and restoring liquidity by unblocking the Input Tax Credit ('ITC'). GST slabs cause problems with categorisation. Given the country's overall economic position and taxpayers' financial capabilities, it's critical to have only three GST rates: a standard rate for most goods and services, a reduced rate for common man consumption, and a higher rate for luxury goods and services. To boost the Make in India effort, the GST rate for manufacturing should be reduced to 12% from 18%. COVID-19 has also highlighted the significance of precaution and now is an excellent opportunity to make health and life insurance plans more accessible to the general public by lowering the GST rate on health and life insurance premiums from 18% to 5%.
The Covid-19 epidemic has been wreaking havoc around the world, including India, for the past two years or more, but the government has yet to establish a particular deduction under the Income Tax Act of 1961 to pay the treatment costs for COVID-19 patients who are not covered by any health insurance.
It's no surprise that the ICAI has proposed adding 'COVID-19' to the list of diseases that can be claimed as a deduction under section 80DDB. It reads, “In current times, it may be considered to allow medical expenditure incurred on treatment COVID-19 as expenditure incurred for treatment of specified disease to claim deduction under section 80DDB."
In light of this, income tax specialists have offered the following recommendations for granting tax relief to Covid patients and their families:
COVID-19 immunisation and treatment-related expenses are taxable to the employer.
COVID-19 medication is deducted separately.
My Opinion
In my opinion, the GST should be increased to promote the businesses but not with a hike of doubling it as it would affect the people as we know in this pandemic many people have lost their jobs, bread earners and many people salary have been cut down. I agree with the recommendation that there should be a deduction given of a particular amount in tax for treatment expenses of COVID-19.
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