Sitharaman promises smooth & quick Budget implemetation; clarifies on 'Assemble In India'

The Union Minister of Finance, Nirmala Sitharaman, on Tuesday, stated that the Centre is determined to see through the implementation of the Union Budget which was presented on February 1. She said that the ministry will be on its toes to implement the budget. She further said that the provisions in the Union Budget will provide encouragement to 'Make in India'. 

Nirmala Sitharaman on implementation of Union Budget  

Attending an event of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Finance Minister said, “We will be spending a lot of time looking at the implementation of the Budget. I assure you we will be on our toes. If we have raised duties it is not with the sense of protectionism. If there are medical devices being made in India, we want to give encouragement under Make in India, at least for those, we do not want imports flooding the market.” 

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Stressing that ‘Assemble in India’ would come in handy for the country in the long run, Sitharaman further said, "There is no shift from 'Make in India'. I have seen this concern that is it going to be 'assemble in India' and forget 'Make in India'. 'Assemble in India' has a purpose. We are using this also as a capacity building measure for India.” 

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Talking about her 2-hours-40-minute-long budget speech, Nirmala Sithraman added, "Not only was my budget speech long, this budget also had the longest ever preparations behind it. I had started preparations for it after my first budget presentation in July (2019).” 

The Union Budget speech 

Sitharaman commenced the budget speech by stressing that this was a budget to boost the income and enhance purchasing power. She noted that the fundamentals of the economy were strong, inflation had been contained, banks had been cleaned up and formalization of the economy had taken place during the NDA government’s first term in office. Moreover, she talked about the positive impact after the introduction of GST and paid homage to the late Arun Jaitley for his invaluable contribution. 

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Thereafter, she listed the success of government schemes such as PMAY, Ayushman Bharat, financial inclusion, etc. After this, she dedicated her speech to elaborate on the three prominent themes of the budget. The three themes for the budget were aspirational India, economic development and caring society. 

(With ANI Inputs)

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