Union Budget 2019: The d-day has come for Nirmala Sitharaman’s maiden budget and in it, the finance minister has announced a pension scheme for retail traders who have annual turnover below Rs 1.5 crore, possibly bringing a major cheer for the ruling BJP’s one of the loyal support base. Targetting around three crore retail traders in India, the scheme is called Pradhan Mantri Karam Yogi Man Dhan and will be a massive relief for retail traders. To avail the same, Nirmala Sitharaman has said that AADHAR and a bank account will be mandatory.
Earlier, the Confederation of All India Traders had approached Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with white papers to push reforms. Among many reforms that it asked for, GST simplification, incentives of digital payments and national policy for traders had the key focus. CAIT’s General Secretary Praveen Khandelwal had also tabled the request for a pension of retail traders after attaining the age of 60.
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Upon the appointment of Nirmala Sitharaman as Finance Minister, Praveen Khandelwal had said that he hopes that the new finance minister will listen to the requests of the traders’ body. After BJP came into power with a sweeping mandate, CAIT had also said that the BJP manifesto has delivered on most of the demands made by the traders’ community and had won confidence from traders all across India.
Meanwhile, in the Budget Economic Survey 2018-19 presented on Thursday, the Chief Economic Adviser to the Ministry of Finance, Krishnamurthy V Subramanian, said that the current survey document focuses on the many opportunities that lie ahead of Modi government and discusses how to fulfil Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2025. He said that India will need to shift its gears to target a GDP growth of over 8%.
The Narendra Modi led government had presented the Interim Budget in February 2019 before coming back in power with a sweeping mandate.