NEW DELHI: The Narendra Modi government will not cut any subsidies to fund welfare schemes such as the income support for farmers announced in the February 1 budget that could be enlarged to cover other deprived sections and will take whatever measures are necessary to help startups, interim finance minister Piyush Goyal said.
In an interview to ET, he hinted that taxpayers could get more in the final budget for FY20 that will be presented in July after the general election. The interim budget’s revenue and fiscal targets are achievable, he said.
A day before the monetary policy review by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), he said the government has sent a strong signal that it has kept faith with fiscal consolidation, dismissing concerns about any slippage.
“Where is the fiscal problem — I don’t understand,” he said. “This year we have provided Rs 20,000 crore extra for farmers, so only that 0.1% of slippage. And that also I have explained earlier is (actually) 3.36%.” That’s against the targeted 3.3% for FY19.
In the interim budget, the government has provided full tax rebate on income up to Rs 5 lakh, raising expectations that in the final one the exemption limit could be raised to that level from Rs 2.5 lakh, especially after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the interim budget was only a “trailer.”
Goyal hinted that more was coming, without commenting on the exemption limit. “In the interim budget, we have not been able to make the full proposals that we would have liked to make in income tax,” he said. “The final budget will have all our proposals.”
On the issue of the interim budget not offering any relief for startups faced with the so-called angel tax, he implied that this couldn’t be tackled in the interim budget.
“We will have to wait for the final budget,” he said. “This government will support startups and will ensure that there can never be a problem on genuine investments.”