Exclusive: Nirmala Sitharaman says hike in cess on petrol & diesel not likely to affect inflation

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman spoke exclusively to ETV Bharat on the impact of Re 1 hike in cess on inflation.

New Delhi: Allaying any adverse fears of impact on the inflation from the Re. 1 hike in cess on petrol and diesel announced today in the Union Budget 2019-20, FM Nirmala Sitharaman exclusively told ETV Bharat: "The inflation control and management in this government had been exemplary and was well under the manageable levels as claimed by many economists," hence there would be no major impact on the inflation management of RBI.

On Defence

Answering questions on the fate of defence, given the fact that she was the previous defence minister, Sitharaman said that there has been a hike in both the defence expenditure as well as the defence pensions. While the allocations for defence pensions were increased to Rs 1,12,079.57 crore, the total defence outlay stood at Rs 4,31,010.79 crore and accounts for 15.47 per cent of the total central budget allocation.

On Education

She said that in a bid to make the Indian education system more robust in consonance with the National Education Policy 2019, a National Research Fund (NRF) would be created to strengthen the entire research eco-system in the country.

Besides, ‘Study in India’ initiative was proposed to lure in more foreign students to study in higher education institutes in the country.

On Start-ups

She said that Stand-up India had done excellently well and the issue of Angel tax on start-ups had been resolved. She said that investors filing requisite declarations and providing information on their returns were to be exempted from any scrutiny.

Start-ups have been given a whole set of tax benefits. She said that the budget had set doable and achievable targets; for instance, the Rs 1.05 lakh crore disinvestment target though higher than previous years, was achievable.

On NBFCs

On the crisis in the Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs), the government is paying more attention to this sector. She said that NBFCs were the critical component of the baking system and the government has adopted a comprehensive approach to the NBFC financing and was considering regulatory concerns too.

On Corporate Sector

On the issue of reducing corporate taxes to 25 per cent for businesses with a turnover of less than Rs 400 crore, she said, "we are sending a clear message that we are not being rigid to the corporate tax structure".