Thrifty Budget: Massive spending spree proposed to unleash growth (Roundup)

New Delhi, Feb 1 : The Centre will go in for a massive spending spree on infrastructure creation, healthcare, education and demand generation to revive India’s pandemic-battered economy.
In her third budget presentation in the Parliament on Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed to unleash massive fiscal expansion in 2021-22 on the back of high borrowings, fire sales and an agricultural cess.
However, no adverse impact is set to come on prices as the Centre made prior duty adjustments before imposing the cess.
The first budget after the Covid-19 outbreak got a thumbs-up from India Inc with the equity markets jumping around 5 per cent in the day’s trade.
The biggest take-away from the budget has been the Centre’s aggressive push to revive the economy via higher outlay for capital expenditure.
The FM proposed to increase capex by 34 per cent in Budget 2021-22 in comparison to the previous fiscal BE (Budget Estimate).