-The Hindu It would be much easier for the government to provide relief to people if the tax base was wider, says Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj, noting that four crore people don’t file returns though the tax department gets some TDS collections on their account. With major customs duty rationalisation done and corporate tax settled, the government hopes to finish some pending reforms in personal income tax and GST, creating a...

-Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), February 4, 2022 Since 2006, Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) has been bringing out an analysis of the Union Budget every year soon after its presentation in Parliament. This publication aims to facilitate an informed discussion on the Budget focusing both on revenue and expenditure aspects, particularly around the social sectors, agriculture, rural economy, climate actions and provisioning of budgetary support for...

-The Hindu Audits, transparency and citizen-centric accountability need to be a part of fund support and disbursement Every COVID-19 wave in India has brought us face to face with the dire precarity of life and livelihood for India’s vast numbers of unorganised workers, and the inadequate response of the state and society to their plight. The latest global OXFAM inequality report highlights how India’s billionaires have grown dramatically in numbers and wealth,...

-TheWire.in What you lose on the wings, you gain on the roundabouts.  With no other major growth investments or policy reforms in the budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made capital investment the lynchpin of the government’s growth strategy in Budget 2022. Stressing that “the virtuous cycle of investment requires public investment to crowd-in private investment” she took high moral ground to say that the “public investment must continue to take the lead and...

-TheWire.in Much was expected from the Union Budget 2022 which has come at a time when the Indian economy is facing an economic turmoil due to the coronavirus pandemic and battling widespread unemployment and inflation. High hopes were pinned on this year’s budget as the country saw young people protesting for Railway jobs, farmers protesting for the government to address their loss of incomes, micro-sector producers as they faced closures and PSU...