Budget 2021: 2X Health Spending, No Income Tax Rebate, More FDI In Insurance - All About FM's Digital Budget | 10 Points

Union Budget 2021: Finance Minister read out the budget speech in the Lok Sabha from a tablet replacing the conventional paper document as the first paperless Budget since independence was presented by the government due to the Covid-19 situation.

Union Budget 2021: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the much-awaited Union Budget in the Parliament with government's intent to revive the economy and push its flagship Atma Nirbhar Bharat or Self Reliant India. In her two-hour long Budget speech, FM Sitharaman laid focus on driving economic recovery through higher spending on sectors such as healthcare and infrastructure.

Finance Minister read out the budget speech in the Lok Sabha from a tablet replacing the conventional paper document as the first paperless Budget since independence was presented by the government due to the Covid-19 situation.

Today's speech was Sitharaman's shortest Budget speech, who had delivered the longest speech last year. Her first Budget speech in July 2019 went on for around 137 minutes and in 2020, it went on for more than 160 minutes and was cut short after she felt unwell.

With a mega boost to healthcare and railways industries, FM Sitharaman also announced various government plans aimed at pushing the domestic manufacturing sector, MSMEs and many more.

Here are top 10 highlights of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget Speech:

1. In a much-needed boost to healthcare sector, FM Sitharaman announced a new centrally sponsored scheme for the segment in Budget 2021. She said that 'PM Atmanirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana' will be launched with a combined outlay of Rs 64,180 crore over a period of next 6 years. The total budget allocated for healthcare sector is 2.23 lakh crore. This is an increase of 137 per cent from last year. Sitharaman also announces Rs 35,000 crore for Covid-19 vaccination drive. 

2.  FM also allocated a record sum of Rs 1,10,055 crore for Indian Railways of which she said Rs 1,07,100 crore is for the capital expenditure. The senior BJP leader further stated that the national transporter will monetise the Dedicated Freight Corridor (DFC) asset after commissioning.

3. To give a push to infrastructure creation and reviving the economy, Finance Minister also proposed to set up a Development Financial Institution (DFI). The Finance Minister proposed to create the DFI -- National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) -- via a parliamentary bill. DFI will be formed with a seed capital of Rs 20,000 crore. DFI is expected to give a massive lending push worth around Rs 5 lakh crore till the next three years, FM informed.

4. Coming to National Highway schemes, FM proposed the construction of 8,500 km highway by March 2022. Four poll-bound states -- Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Assam -- secured a major chunk of the proposed new highway projects. Sitharaman proposed 3,500 km of highway in Tamil Nadu at an investment of Rs 1.03 lakh crore, and 1,100 km of highway in Kerala at an investment of Rs 65,000 crore. For West Bengal, the Finance Minister proposed 675 km of national highway at a cost of Rs 95,000 crore. For Assam, Sitharaman proposed 1,300 km of highway to be constructed in the next three years.

5. In the Union Budget 2021, the government has pegged its target for disinvestment for FY 2021-22 at Rs 1.75 lakh crore. A major announcement made by Finance Minister was that the government will privatise two public sector banks other than IDBI Bank. One general insurance company will also be privatised in the coming fiscal, she said adding that the much delayed disinvestment processes of Air India and BPCL among others would be completed in the upcoming fiscal.

6. In a bid to boost digital payments, Sitharaman proposed a Rs 1,500 crore scheme during her budget presentation. As per the Finance Minister, the government has worked out the modalities for the National Research Foundation (NRF), which was announced in her Budget speech of 2019. The NRF outlay will be Rs 50,000 crore over five years.

7.  In another bid to boost domestic manufacturing, the government announced a 2.5 per cent increase in customs duty on mobile chargers and some sub-parts of phones, a move that will make phones more expensive. "For greater domestic value addition, we are withdrawing a few exemptions on parts of chargers and sub-parts of mobiles. Further, some parts of mobiles will move from 'nil' rate to a moderate 2.5 per cent," FM informed.

8. Sitharaman made a major announcement in the Union Budget 2020-21 related to the agriculture sector on Monday, saying that the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund would also be available for Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandis. Sitharaman has announced to hike the target of agricultural loans (farm credit) to Rs 16.5 lakh crore and has also doubled the outlay for Sukshma Sinchai Yojana (micro-irrigation project).

9.  FM also proposed to unleash a massive fiscal expansion in 2021-22 on the back of fire sales and cesses, to revive India's pandemic-battered economy. Sitharaman proposed to increase the capital expenditure by 34 per cent in Budget 2021-22 in comparison to the previous fiscal BE (Budget Estimate). Interestingly, fiscal expansion proposes to increase the capital outlay to Rs 5.54 lakh crore from Rs 4.12 lakh crore spending target in BE FY21.

10. Lastly, bringing worry for the middle-class taxpayers, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chose to keep the Income Tax slabs unchaged for 2021 fiscal with incumbent standard deduction or Section 80C limit. However, it is also noteworthy that no cess was announced for higher income groups. The government decided to do away with the burden of Income Tax Return (ITR) filing for those above 75 years and get pensions and banks interest as only source of income.