Hyderabad: MCR HRD holds discussion on Union Budget

Hyderabad: A panel discussion organised by Dr MCR HRD Institute on the Union Budget-2021 here on Wednesday enabled trainee civil servants gauge the importance of the budget which gives policy direction to legislative action.

The discussion was conducted as part of a special foundation course-2021 for trainee civil servants. Institute Director-General Harpreet Singh, who presided over the panel discussion, called upon the trainees to fully understand not only the various expenditure heads, but also the revenue mobilisation that will bring in the money required to fund the outlays.

Mubeen Rafat, former Professor and Head, Department of Economics and Finance, ASCI, said the intent of the budget was to achieve GDP growth through increase in infrastructure investments. “The budget has not addressed the needs of the MSME sector or the migrant labour issues”, she said, adding that the philosophy behind the budget was academically correct but execution will remain a major challenge.

University of Hyderabad former Professor of Economics J. Manohar Rao expressed mixed feelings on the budget. He welcomed the impressive outlays on infrastructure saying that this would boost private sector investments and thereby create more jobs. However, he added that the projected “V” shaped recovery of economy appears to be more exaggerated than what the depressing ground realities suggest.

MCR HRD Institute Professor Amir Ullah Khan, who moderated the panel discussion, said that the budget was an important tool in the hands of the State to achieve inclusive growth and to deliver services to the most marginalized and the vulnerable. “A robust intervention on part of the government, through the Union Budget-2021, would help rebuild the economy and assure health, education and employment to the vast numbers that have been impacted by COVID 19,” he added.

A Chartered Accountant Ganesh Balakrishnan said that while there was no increase in tax rates, there was a large scale rationalization and simplification in the procedural aspects of GST. “The budget has proposed the removal of audit requirements and mandated reconciliation of financial statements”, he said.

He added that self-certification would improve the procedural aspects of submitting tax returns, which would help in increasing tax collection even when tax rates have not been increased.

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