FM Nirmala Sitharaman starts presenting budget for Financial Year 2021-22

 

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is now presenting her budget for the Financial Year 2021-22 in the Lok Sabha. Earlier, Union Cabinet approved the budget.

 

 

Sitharaman met President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in the morning.

 

 

Amid the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, he has assured a budget “like never before”.

 

 

There is an expectation that the budget could be transformational in its measures for health care, on job creation and for the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).

 

 

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The country, which even before the pandemic upended plans and projects, was already coping with a slowdown in the economy, has its hopes hinged onto the budget for its measures to boost growth, bring in industry-specific investment enablers and a rationalised regulatory compliance mechanism.

 

 

The current year is expected to end with a net contraction in GDP by about 7 per cent.

 

 

The Economic Survey 2020, presented by FM Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday pegged the GDP growth at 11 per cent in FY22.