India’s finance minister presents first paperless budget

For the first time in the history, Nirmala Sitharaman, finance minister of India, placed paperless budget for the fiscal year 2021-22.

Sitharaman was reading out the budget keeping a tablet computer in her hand, several Indian media reports.

The budget document will not be printed this year due to the outbreak of coronavirus and the full budget documents will be found online.

India is going to pass the national budget for the new fiscal year when the country’s economy has been hit hard due to the pandemic of coronavirus.

Amid the situation, the economic growth of the country has been fixed 11 percent in the proposed budget.

The country’s health sector has been given the height priority in the budget.

The finance minister also announced a package worth Rs 64.180 crore to strengthen the country’s health sector. Health laboratories will be built at all districts across the India, she said in her budget speech.

Besides, Indian central bank has already announced a package worth Rs 27,0000 crore to face the crisis of coronavirus, around Rs 2000 crore has been allocated for protecting environment while importance has been given to ensure development of children and young generation in the budget.

In the budget speech, Sitharaman said the fiscal deficit for 2020-21 is pegged at 9.5 percent of the GDP. The fiscal deficit for the FY22 has been pegged at 6.8 percent.

Sitharaman also proposed a sharp rise in capital expenditure of the government and provided Rs 5.54 lakh crore which is 34.5 percent more than the budget estimate of 2020-21.