Thread by @deepakshenoy

The Budget begins. #Budget2020 (Thread)

Will enhance purchasing power, says the FM. We're on!

The first part is going to be all blah, blah, blah.

Historic blah. GST Blah. Maturing blah. Very good things blah. Efficiency blah. We will get back when there is less diabetes orientation.

Added 60 lakh more taxpayers. 125 cr. eway bills. Interesting, but that's like population growth, honestly.

People named Vikas and Vishwas. You're getting quoted.

This is the marketing part of the budget. So we will make snarky comments to keep ourselves awake.

Amazing. FM says Govt debt comes down from 52% to 48% of GDP, but the absolute number has actually gone up. Maybe the percentage will come down when they revise GDP next year.

Oh man. Verse in Kashmiri. No, seriously.

Vikas and Vishwas, you are now overshadowed by "vatan".

16 action points coming

1 - encourage state govts who do the model agricultural land leasing, contract farming, etc. acts. (What is the encouragement?)

2. water stressed districts something something.

3. 20 lakh farmers to set up solar powered pumps.

4. Balanced use of fertilizer. Organic also. I shudder to think.

(Segue about farm land and manure. Tamil and all.)

5. Will geo tag warehouse tag. Viability gap funding for this. (Banks: watch out for NPAs :) )

6. Women get assistance as SHGs for helping. NOt sure what here.

7. Kisan rail to transport perishables.

(We lost 8)

9. Horticulture sector exceeds the production of foodgrains. Support states that do 1 product, 1 district.

10. Non cropping season support for solar, etc.

11. Financing of Warehouse Receipts = 6000 cr. already. This will be integrated with the national agri market. (Huh?)

12. NABARD refin for agri credit expanded. 15 lakh cr. for agri credit for the next year. (This is roughly 10% of total money supply afaik)

13. MNREGA for fodder in farms, doubling of milk capacity etc.

14. Blue economy. This would have had me giggling in college.

15. Fish production to 200 lakh tonnes. Lots of support.

16. Deen dayal yojana to be expanded.

They will use AI and ML in Ayushman bharat, will target diseases. I see VCs are rushing to finance the budget immediately.

All that talk and Swach bharat gets 12300 cr. only. THis is less than 10% of what they use to buy too much wheat and rice from rich farmers and let it rot.

A New Education Policy to be announced soon. Not sure where this is going

Online degrees by top 100 institutions. Now we're talking. Hope this actually happens.

National forensic science university and cyber forensics. Very nice, except they dont prosecute fellow who shoots other people on street - what is the point of forensics.

But I digress.

Big demand for nurses, paramedical staff abroad too, will set up stuff around education here also.

Industry farmers and development = economic development. Segue into Saraswathi Sindhu civilization some 3300 BCE. It's useful to put context of where we are comparing to, I guess.

We need the next budget to have an actual plot, build up and climax.

The point was, apparently, to say that Entrepreneurship has always been the strength of India. (I will so agree with this)

"Remove roadblocks" -> Investment roadblock removal cell it seems.

We are now in the 7th budget of getting smart cities. And this one does not disappoint in pointing out this is the future (as long as you're not stuck in traffic)

Sops for Technical textiles and Mobile manufacturing.

Auto refund of taxes and duties for exporters from this year itself. Hmm.

27,300 cr. for promotion of commerce! (Next, we will buy everything in the next mega super sale)

There are lots of long long words. Waiting for details.

Accelerated dev of infra, highways etc. 2023 = Del-bom expressway.

Railways - solar powered capacity for alongside tracks. (wasnt this there in many previous budgets?)

148 km BLR suburban project (18600 cr.!) - central govt to provide 20% of equity. Whatay. (in addition to metro?)

100 more airports by 2024. Sounds ambitious.

Prepaid electricity meters with freedom to choose suppliers (discoms?)

Quantum, ML, NLP, AI, "paradigm", sharing economy etc. Softbank is tranferring money like right now.

We are now in Quantum technologies. 8000 cr. in five years for national mission on quantum technologies. Someone buy that mutual fund at least now.

Third thing - caring society.

35600 cr. for nutrition related programs.

85,000 cr. for backward classes.

Institute of Heritage and Culture. Deemed university. Five "iconic" sites to be built. Like Hastinapur and all that.

I really hope the tax part of the budget is more exciting.

Power plants with too much pollution to be shut down after 2021. AH.

4400 cr. for cleaner air in cities.

Meanwhile, Tamil Poem so you can go put water on face to wake up.

Respect for wealth creators, such as Selvam. Now to find out which startup she is referring to.

The government is going to cut tax harassment.

Criminal liabilities in Cos act will be moved to civil. (This will be nice)

Now for the financial sector. This is now a body part.

Banks to go to markets to raise capital. Read: govt has given enough.

Depositors money is absolutely safe. (All scheduled commercial banks). Meaning Yes will be rescued?

Deposit insurance coverage increased from 1 lakh to 5 lakh per depositor. Yes, this is much needed. (But they actually need to pay it out!!!!)

Limit for NBFCs for debt in SARFAESI = reduced from 500 cr. to 100 cr.

Loan size cut from 1 cr. to 50L. Good for smaller NBFCs

IDBI bank remaining holding to be sold off. I'm sure people have been desperate to buy it currently. <snark>

Nice. Treds will get access to NBFC funding by lower limits created.

Whoa! Subordinate, guaranteed debt will be given to MSMEs. Guaranteed by the cred-guarantee-corp

some GSecs will be opened fully for NRIs and foreign investors.

Netting off in financial contracts to be allowed. Very good of banks.

GSec - only ETF coming soon. Not bad.

For NBFCs, partial guarantee of NBFC issued securitized pools likely to be increased

(As an aside: Maybe we should come back tomorrow for tax changes)

AWESOME! LIC to have an IPO!

Nominal growth of 10% expected.

She says Fiscal Deficit. With an introduction. I am not liking.

3.8% in 19-20 and 2.5% in 20-21.

FRBM trigger to be used for structural reforms that allows 0.5%. (What structural reforms?)

SOrry 3.5% for 20-21

Net market borrowing 5 lakh cr. in this FY and 5.33 lakh cr. for next FY.

Now for direct taxes. WAKE UP NOW.

Wait. She's doing another poem. Toilet break also okay.

This one is in Sanskrit. About collection of water drops from people. Does not augur well.

Personal tax: 10% tax for 5 to 7.5 lakh if you take no exemptions.

7.5 to 10 lakh will pay 15%. Again, only for those who take no exemptions

10L to 12.5 lakh will pay 20%. (No exemptions allowed)

12.5L to 15L = 25%.
>15L remains the same.

Note that if you take exemptions you will get the old system which is 5L, 10L as the slabs.

This is not exactly simplication, ma'am.

Simplification. Why does a word like this have to be so long?

Reduction of 78,000 rupees for a person earning 15 lakh.

That's not bad actually. YOu get money to spend instead of putting it in ELSS or PPF.

But then, if you have kids school fees, or EPF compulsory, it's like blah.

WIll reduce exemptions in the future.

DDT: Companies currently pay it. Now individuals will pay it. LIkely from April onwards.

100% exemptions on interest, dividend etc by SWFs in infra by 2024.

Municipal bonds to be tax free for foreigners?

Startups: ESOP taxation on vesting will be deferred for five years or till exit!

Upto 5 cr. no audit, only if you have less than 5% cash. (versus 1 cr.)

Extends tax relief for affordable housing developers for another year.

"Vivaad se Vishwas" brings back Vishwas into the winner zone.

Sabka Vishwas reduced indirect tax litigation by 189000 cases.

There are some 480000 cases in the DIRECT tax litigation thingy.

"Vivaad se Vishwas" = pay only disputed tax (no interest or penalty - if you pay by 31 march 2020)

No more direct tax changes. Now for indirect taxes.

Merged companies can use losses. This is actually good.

Even the MPs are like we want a loo break now.

Importing medical equipment - new cess. Oye.

And it ends abruptly. But it's ended. Thanks for listening.

More after the budget papers are visible. I'm tired, so I'll be cranky. But then so are you.