Dr MCR HRD Instituteorganised a Panel Discussion on the Union Budget-2021 as a part of the Special Foundation Course-2021 for trainee Civil Servants. Sri Harpreet Singh, IAS, Director General of the Institute & Principal Secretary to Govt, who presided over the Panel Discussion, said that the Union budget is an important document that gives policy direction to legislative action and called upon the trainee Civil Servants to fully understand not only the various expenditure heads, but also the revenue mobilisation that will bring in the money required to fund the outlays.
Dr Mubeen Rafat, former Professor & Head, Department of Economics & Finance, ASCI said that “The budget has not addressed the needs of the MSME sector or the migrant labour issues”, she said and added that the philosophy behind the budget is academically correct but execution will remain a major challenge.
Dr. J. Manohar Rao,former Professor of Economics at University of Hyderabad expressed that this would boost private sector investments and thereby create more jobs in the economy. However, he added that the projected “V” shaped recovery of economy appearsto be more exaggerated than what the depressing ground realities suggest.
CA Ganesh Balakrishnansaid that while there is no increase in tax rates, there is a large scale rationalization and simplification in the procedural aspects of GST.
CA ShravankumarNemani said that the Budget provides thrust on agriculture and rural development was widely expected but the budget did not address them. “In line with the International standards, the need of the hour is to align the financial year with the calendar year for the purpose of taxation”, he stated.
CA Mohd.Irshad Ahmed felt that while the Government has not changed both the income tax and GST rates, it has targeted a revenue collection of more than 5% in both GST and Income Tax through stringent recovery mechanism, assisted by Artificial Intelligence and Data Analysis tools.
Dr. Amir Ullah Khan, Professor at Dr. MCR HRD Institute, who moderated the Panel Discussion, said that the budget is an important tool in the hands of the State to achieve inclusive growth and to deliver services to the most marginalized and the vulnerable.
