Budget 2021- Impact on personal Finance

Budget
Indian Budget 2021

Lack of knowledge about how to manage financial assets leads people to ask, “Why is personal finance important?” Personal financial skills are very important because without them, people usually spend their entire lives savings without knowing the future need and always in debt, never able to catch up and get ahead. If you don’t plan for your income, you will end up overspending or spending on unnecessary items. With a proper financial plan, you will be able to manage your income effectively. This way, you will spend on what is necessary and save or invest the rest. Being able to manage your income will help you to know which expenses to handle first and which ones come later. Also, you can effectively know how much is necessary for tax payments, savings, or clear your monthly bills.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented Union Budget 2021-22 in on 1st Feb. While she made no changes to the income tax slabs, other announcements were done that can impact one’s personal finances.

Relaxation to NRI for Income of Retirement benefit account

In order to remove the genuine hardship faced by the NRIs in respect of their income accrued on foreign retirement benefit account due to a mismatch in taxation, Budget 2021 proposed to notify rules for aligning the taxation of income arising on foreign retirement benefit account.

 Taxation of Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP)

If you were investing in ULIPs for investment purpose rather than protection goals, then the Budget 2021 has ensured your earnings from ULIPs will be subject to Capital Gains Tax from April 1, in case premium exceeds INR. 250,000 annually

Relaxation to Sr. Citizen above 75

In order to ease the compliance burden on senior citizen pensioners those are of 75 years of age or above, Budget 2021 proposed to exempt them from the requirement of filing an income tax return (ITR) if the full amount of tax payable has been deducted by the paying bank. This exemption is proposed to be made available to such senior citizens who have only interest income apart from the pension income.

Interest earned on annual Provident Fund contribution over INR 2.5 lakh to be taxable

The Union Budget 2021 has some bad news for high earners. the Budget proposes to tax interest earned on provident fund contribution above INR 2.5 lakh per year

Tax incentives for Affordable Housing

“This government sees housing for all and affordable housing as priority areas. In July 2019 they provided and additional deduction of interest amounting to INR 1.5 Lakh for loan taken to buy an affordable house. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman propose to extend the eligibility of this condition by one more year to 31st March 2022The additional deduction of 1.5 lakh shall therefore be available for loans taken up to 31st March 2022, for the purchase of the affordable housing




LokSabhaTV- Nirmala Sitharaman- Budget Provisions for Jal Shakti

Nirmala Sitharaman
IIITD Student B.Tech Project. BTP Supervisor: Prof. Manohar Khushalani BTP Students: Sejal Kumar / Aysha Fazilath / Rahul Patwardhan / Vyshakh Dharan

A Panel Discussion was held on Lok Sabha TV at 1 PM and 4 PM on the 24th of January 2020 to discuss provisions for Water in Ms. Nirmala Sitaraman’s Budget Session in Lok Sabha due on 1st February. The Program was anchored by Parakram Singh Shekhawat. The panelists were Arun Tiwari, Manohar Khushalani and Himanshu Thakkar. They all went into their expectations from the budget with respect to Budget Provisions for Jal Shakti – Water. 

The anchor began the discussion with a small introduction of the Ministry of water resources (Jal Shakti Mantraley), Mr. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the troubled state of water quality and availability through the country, and its ever arising complications. Mr. Arun Tiwari elaborated on our lack of efforts in successfully harvesting rainwater and sustaining groundwater levels, highlighting the lack of regulations surrounding these harvesting methods. The importance of sustainability was highlighted as well unless groundwater is recharged, regulated and the focus needs to be shifted to Sustainability. 

The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation have been merged into the Jal Shakti Ministry under the second term of the Modi government and the Jal Shakti Ministry was allocated Rs 28,261 Crore, an 8% increase. A 10 pointer vision for the next decade was listed out by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. She elaborated that the Jal Shakti Ministry will manage the country’s water resources and water supply in an integrated holistic manner, and will work towards supplying all rural households with water supply by 2024. In the LSTV discussion, Manohar brought forward a set of important points such as the minimal increase in the budget allocated, the unsanitary sewage system, and lack of stormwater drains. He also insisted that along with budget allocation, our national lakes need to be taken care of efficiently and resurrected, and the need for the development of rural handicrafts and the need for a River Basin Authority, for the systematic distribution of water. 

The Atal Bhujal Yojna, is a scheme, also known as ‘Atal Jal’ will promote panchayat-led groundwater management and behavioral change with a primary focus on demand-side management. The scheme is aimed at

  • doubling farmers’ incomes,
  • promoting participatory groundwater management,
  • improving water use efficiency on a mass scale,
  • improving cropping pattern and
  • promoting efficient and equitable use of groundwater resources and
  • behavioral change at the community level.

Official estimates state that over INR 9 crores (90 million) toilets were constructed from 2014 when the Swacch Bharat Mission was launched under the Modi government as one of its flagship schemes. Yet, a government survey in 2017 showed that 6 out of 10 toilets built under the Swacch Bharat Mission did not have water supply, and were hence unusable.

The chemical fertilizer farming is allocated INR 80,000crores, while the green revolution farmers are allotted INR12,000crores but the Organic manure farming is allocated only INR 2 Crore, Manohar Khushalani pointed out, the obvious lack of financial support to organic farmers led to Cancer and other diseases in the cities of Punjab and Harayana, he insisted on the importance of WaterShed Management, an initiative taken by Anna Hazare previously. 

The discussion shed light upon various important aspects of Budget allocation for water conservation and also examined the various areas where more efforts are required for sustainability.

You can watch the informative debate here.

You will find more details on the next debate on LSTV on the topic of Atal Bhujal Yojna, Please find the entire debate here.

A playlist of interesting panel discussions on conservation of Water.