The Narendra Modi government’s Interim Budget 2019, presented by the Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in the Parliament today had some big giveaways for the middle class, small farmers and the rural population.
The interim budget was revered by the ailing Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, who called it “unquestionably Pro-Growth, Fiscally prudent, Pro-Farmer, Pro-Poor”.
The Budget is unquestionably Pro-Growth, Fiscally prudent, Pro-Farmer, Pro-Poor and strengthens the purchasing power of the Indian Middle Class.
However, the Opposition, as expected, are not seeming very happy and are targeting the ruling government, calling the budget yet another “election jumla”.
Former Prime Minister and Congress veteran, Manmohan Singh on being asked about the big income tax gift for the middle class and farmers, was quick on critiquing the budget, calling it “an election budget”. Former prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh said that the concessions provided to farmers and the middle-class will have implications on the general elections due by May.
Piyush Goyal, reading out the budget in parliament, after making a series of big announcements had said, “this is not just an Interim Budget, this is a vehicle for developmental transformation of the nation.”
The Interim Budget 2019 have some big endowments, especially for the middle class and the farmers of the country.
Those with an annual income of up to Rs 5 lakh will not have to pay income tax.
Under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, farmers with less than 2 hectares of land will be given ₹6,000 per annum towards income support for procurement of inputs.
A pension scheme for workers in the unorganised sector with a monthly income of up to Rs 15,000 too was announced. They will have an assured monthly pension of Rs 3,000 after they retire at 60.
The government has decided to hike the gratuity limit from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh from the next financial year.
Income tax refunds will be processed within 24 hours and released immediately.
Though the populace is expected to be content with the Interim Budget, which prima-facie appears to be a pro-people budget, the usual suspects are already out there making false affirmations against the Modi government.
Former finance minister with the UPA government P Chidambaram, who himself is under the scanner facing corruption and money laundering charges, trying to take claim for the pro-poor budget, slammed Goyal for “copying Congress’ declaration that the poor have the first right to the resources of the country”.
Thank you Interim FM for copying the Congress’ declaration that the poor have the first right to the resources of the country.
Well, the Congress who for all this while have been favouring ‘fair share for minorities’ and claiming that the Muslims have the first claim on the resources have swiftly shifted goals, taking credit for the pro-poor stance adopted by the BJP government, in their futile attempt to woo the public.
The interim budget for the year 2019 presented by the acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal included a range of comprehensive measures encompassing all sections of the society with the aim to set the country on a robust growth trajectory. The salient features of the interim budget 2019 reinforce the government’s firm commitment to provide enhanced investment in Social, Education, Health, Defence and Agriculture sectors.
Farmers with land holdings less than 2 hectares were offered with a new scheme- PM Kisaan Sammaan Nidhi Yojana which offers them a guaranteed Rs 6000 of yearly income directly transferred to their bank accounts. A provision of a mega pension scheme for workers in the unorganised sector was included in the budget. For the middle class, a full tax rebate of income tax for income up to ₹5 lakh was announced. Apart from these, welfare schemes being extended to nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes augmented Defence expenditure and increased funds outlay for OROP implementation were declared. While rolling out the interim budget 2019 in the parliament today, Piyush Goyal also laid down 10 important dimensions for ‘Vision 2030’, the reforms the government would implement that could build a developed India by 2030.
Now, let us delve into the economics of the budget 2019 and how the government of India will fulfil the promises and declarations it made in the budget speech:
The Receipts and Expenditure are the most significant parameters in determining the implementation of the policies outlined by the government of India in the budget. The figures of Receipts and Expenditure aid us in arriving at other significant factors such as Fiscal Deficit (FD), Revenue Deficit (RD), Effective Revenue Deficit (ERD), and the Primary Deficit (PD). These parameters play a vital role in setting strict guidelines for the government to plan its upcoming budget and apprises it of the funds available for the government to spend on different sectors to drive the economy.
Notes:
GDP for BE 2019-2020 has been projected at Rs 21007439 crores assuming 11.5% growth over the estimated GDP of Rs 18840731 crores for 2018-19 (RE).
Individual items in this document may not sum up to the totals due to rounding off.
Figures in parenthesis are as a percentage of GDP.
As per the above table, the Revenue Receipts estimates for the fiscal year 2019-2020 stands at Rs 1977693 crores which include Tax Revenue as well as non-Tax revenue. Revenue generation from Capital receipts are expected to be around Rs 806507 crores, that takes the Total receipts to Rs 2784200 crores.
The total expenditure presented in the budget 2019 is Rs 2784200 crores which is Rs 3,26,695 crores more than the previous year’s Rs 2457235 crores indicates the government’s pledge to grant substantial investment to spur growth in the country while maintaining the fiscal prudence with Fiscal Deficit 3.4% of the GDP. With the Revenue Deficit of Rs 470214 crores, it is slated to be maintained at 2.2% of the GDP.
Where does the money come from?
Source of Money for GoI
The above-mentioned pie-chart describes in detail the distribution of the source of money the government of India receives. The biggest source of income for the government is GST and Corporation-Tax which are both estimated at 21% each of the total receipts. The government hopes to secure 19% of the investments through Borrowings and 17% of it from the Income Tax Treasury. The other sources of receipts include Customs, Union Excise Duties, Non-debt capital receipts and Non-Tax Revenue.
How is the money spent?
Money spent by GoI
Looking at the chart, a major part of the expenditure goes into paying the States’ share of taxes and duties pegged at about 23%. The GoI will spend 9% of the total expenditure on Central Sponsored Schemes such as ‘PM Kisaan Samman Yojana’. About 8% of the expenditure will be spent in the defence sector, while a large chunk of the expense is consumed by paying up the Interest Payments. 8% is allocated to miscellaneous expenditure, in case any revision is required in the current estimates.
Around Rs. 1,66,883 crores will be transferred to states under states’ share of duties and taxes. Rs 3,05,296 crores allocated to the Defence sector, for development of North-East Rs 3000 crore has been assigned. Education sector gets a boost with an investment of Rs 93848 crore by the government. Strengthening its commitment to sustainable sources of Energy, the Modi government has allocated Rs 44,101 crores to the Energy sector. External Affairs get Rs 16,062 crores while Finance gets Rs 19812 crores. Rs 49,337 crores have been earmarked for carrying out Social Welfare activities while a reserve of Rs 1,38,962 is kept for Rural Transformation.
Health sector gets a whopping Rs 63,538 crores of investment. The Agriculture and allied activities sector will get funds worth Rs 1,49,981 crores to address growing farm distress. The commerce industry gets Rs 27660 crores while the Home Affairs has been allocated Rs 1,03,927 crores. The Interests to be paid up by the government is about Rs 6,65,061 crores. The government has dished out Rs 21,549 crores to the IT and Telecom sector while assigning Rs 26,237 crores to the Scientific Department. Transport sector gets Rs 1,56,187 crores and the Tax administration is allocated Rs 1,17,285 crores. The Urban Development has been allocated Rs 48,032 crores and Rs 15042 crores to Union Territories. For miscellaneous, remaining Rs 75822 crores have been pledged. The total expenditure amounts to Rs 27,84,200 crores.
The above table and charts explain in detail how the government plans to utilise the funds available at its disposal to fulfil the commitments laid out by Union Minister Piyush Goyal in his budget 2019 speech. The entire report can be read here.
The Interim Budget presented by the Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal has certainly managed to deliver on the growing farmer distress, rising middle-class concerns, as well as the soaring Defence sector demands. It also succeeded in assuaging fears among Small businesses by offering them a plethora of concessions. The budget also endeavoured to include sections of society hitherto ignored in the previous budgets such as nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes.
In an extremely tragic incidence, the Indian Air Force has confirmed that two senior pilots were killed after the Mirage 2000, which was on an acceptance trial after an upgrade by the HAL, crashed at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) airport at Bengaluru this morning.
JUST IN: HAL statement on today’s upgrade Mirage 2000 crash, announces investigation in coordination with the IAF. pic.twitter.com/4p6Fhw8sfP
One of the pilots landed back on the wreckage after ejecting, while the second pilot died in an operation theatre. The deceased pilots have been identified as Squadron leader Sameer Abrol and Squadron leader Siddarth Negi.
The IAF, in a statement, confirmed that “Today morning a Mirage 2000 trainer aircraft on an acceptance sortie after an upgrade by HAL crashed at HAL airport, Bengaluru. Both occupants sustained fatal injuries. Further details are awaited. The investigation into the cause of the accident is being ordered.”
The state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) makes and upgrades aircraft for training and combat operations of the IAF as the country’s sole defence giant. It also maintains and operates the military airport in Bengaluru.
Recently the IAF had raised concerns over the production delays on the part of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) which according to the Air Force would seriously impact the country’s air combat strength.
The IAF who were particularly concerned with the upgrades to the Mirage 2000 and Jaguar fighter fleets, had asserted that HAL has not been able to meet delivery schedules pointing to the two to six-year delays. It said that it expects the upgraded aircraft to be available only by 2024 now. It was mentioned that as per schedule, 21 upgraded Mirage 2000 jets should have delivered but HAL had managed to deliver only 6 after three production delay.
Recently Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa at a seminar in New Delhi had also spoken against the efficiency of HAL by stating that the IAF had sought its first 20 LCA Tejas aircraft as per requirements issued in 1985. Even then, the HAL has been able to manufacture only 10 fighters of these 20.
The Mirage 2000 is a multirole, single engine, fourth generation fighter jet manufactured by Dassault Aviation. HAL is in the process of upgrading it.
A lot will be written about the Interim Budget 2019 over the next couple of days- some may applaud it, some may call it a “political budget” while others may continue to criticize it just as they’ve criticized everything that the government has done over the last couple of days. But the budget is nothing beyond a simple extension of the economic policies that the government has been following since the last four and a half years and it is a simple extension of the larger vision with which the Prime Minister of India led his 2014 campaign.
In many ways, the budget is historic in the true sense of the word as it recognizes for the first time that India’s approach to the farming sector has not worked. This recognition should have come decades earlier, however, for petty political considerations, successive governments have failed to recognize policy blunders and thus, they’ve not dared to correct them. There is no doubt that India’s Minimum Support Price policy has not helped in providing “income support” to India’s farmers, yet successive governments have relied upon this policy for a prolonged period of time.
There was an urgent need to move towards providing income support to farmers and the government has rightfully recognized it and provisioned for it by providing Rs. 6000 per annum to small and marginal farmers. This is significant as it recognizes the need to uplift the small and marginal farmers who own less than 2 hectares of land from abject poverty. A proposal for Targeted Basic Income by Dr Surjit Bhalla and me had advocated covering the entire poor population irrespective of whether they were rural poor or urban poor, however, it is reassuring to recognize that at least the government is partially accepting the concept of Targeted Basic Income. This may very well be a step towards the Targeted Basic Income program in the coming years.
Most commentators will look at the increase in income tax slabs as a move that is political in nature, but such a view is extremely myopic in nature. Successive governments have highlighted the low tax base in India, but they’ve been unable to correct the situation. The disruptive reforms of the government such as GST & Demonetization have led to a significant increase in India’s tax base. During demonetization, it was argued that eventually, a higher tax base will result in the tax burden being evenly spread across people. The interim budget witnessed this become a reality as the government gave major tax breaks to the middle class of India. This came with the government recognizing the contribution of the middle-class taxpayers towards some of its flagship redistribution schemes.
Another important aspect in this budget is that it demonstrates a vision till 2030 and provides a very clear dimension for evaluation of the progress on this front. In that manner, the budget rightfully looks ahead at our vibrant future. A lot of times it has been stated that the policies of the current government cannot be looked in isolation. This budget rightfully ensures that the continuity of policies is maintained. This is very important to ensure that there is a consistent policy framework that is in place throughout the country. We’ve moved a long way from the days of policy paralysis and this consistent policy framework is ensuring that investors and citizens can take decisions without any fear of uncertain changes.
The government continues to be committed to the program of fiscal consolidation and it has decided to stick to the 40% target for India’s debt to GDP ratio. This reiterates the commitment of the government towards strong macroeconomic fundamentals. It is evident with this budget that the government wants growth, but it also wants to focus on redistribution of the benefits of the growth to ensure that India’s growth is inclusive in nature. The fine print of the budget also suggests that the government has a clear sense of purpose in terms of its expenditure towards the development of future-ready infrastructure.
With GST in, the budget is no longer a document that tells us what will be cheaper or what will be expensive going forward, but it gives us a direction for our future. In that sense, today’s budget has very well placed the foundation for higher growth in the future while it redistributed some of the benefits of the past reforms.
Serial petitioner advocate M L Sharma, who is known for his petitions rejected by courts, has yet another filed a PIL, and this time his target is the interim budget presented by finance minister Piyush Goyal today.
Challenging the validity of the interim budget in his petition, advocate ML Sharma had filed a petition against it at the Supreme Court saying that there is no provision for an interim budget in the constitution. He says that the budget is a fraud on the constitution. Sharma also alleges that government has obtained the signature of the President on the budget fraudulently, as he was not informed that there is no provision for interim budget in the constitution.
Advocate M L Sharma added that the interim budget was a fraud on parliament as it was presented by the government for political benefits.
Just yesterday, M L Sharma’s petition against appointment of former CBI special director Rakesh Asthana as director general of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security was junked by the Supreme Court. Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had said that the petition had no coherence, as it included multiple issues with no connection with each other.
Earlier too, several petitions by Sharma has been dismissed by courts, and he also has been fined and reprimanded for filing frivolous petitions. This petition against the interim budget filed by him is also destined to be rejected.
Interim budgets presented by previous governments
Successive governments in the past had presented interim budgets in their last year of rule. Moreover, the apex court is unlikely to interfere in a matter which is fully in the domain of legislature.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi lies. And he has no qualms about it. After the presentation of the interim budget earlier today, Congress President took to Twitter in an attempt to mock assured income support promised to the farmers.
Dear NoMo,
5 years of your incompetence and arrogance has destroyed the lives of our farmers.
Giving them Rs. 17 a day is an insult to everything they stand and work for. #AakhriJumlaBudget
Rahul Gandhi claimed that Rs 17 per day to farmers as assured income support is ‘an insult’ to farmers. With Rs 6,000 a year, for farmers with less than 2 hectares land, this amount will provide support for the procurement of inputs. This would be over and above the other subsidies, they may already be getting. So effectively, the actual benefit to the 12 crore small farmers may be much more than Rs 17.
Later, while addressing media, he said that PM Modi could ‘waive off’ Rs 3.5 lakh crore loan of 15 people but give only Rs 17 per day to farmers.
Rahul Gandhi: You can waive off Rs 3.5 Lakh Crore loan of 15 people but give only Rs 17 per day to farmers! What else is this, if not an insult? Election will be fought keeping in mind issue of farmers, unemployment & attacks on institutions, it’ll also be on the issue of Rafale. pic.twitter.com/eKQgPyzaC0
This is a lie on multiple accounts. First of all, no loans of ’15 people’ or any industrialists were ‘waived off’. The bad loans were written off. There is a difference between loan waiver and loan write off. Not just that. Rahul Gandhi cannot even stick to one figure of the loan ‘waived off’. It has gone from 1.1 lakh crore to 3.5 lakh crore in a span of less than 2 years. As usual, he provides no data to back his claims.
But seems like Rahul Gandhi is taking lessons in the economy from the farmer of the family, his brother in law Robert Vadra. In 2011, Congress-led UPA government had said that if you spend Rs 32 a day you can’t be poor. The Planning Commission had then told the Supreme Court that anyone spending Rs 26 a day in villages and Rs 32 a day in the city is not poor.
But mocking the poor is not the only thing Congress and its leaders are good at. In 2013, displaying the elitist nature that is inherent in Congress leaders, Congress leader Raj Babbar had said that poverty had come down even though prices had gone up. To justify his statement, he had said that in Mumbai he could get a ‘full meal’ for Rs 12. This combined with the various elitist comments where Congress leaders have mocked Prime Minister Modi’s humble beginnings as a tea-seller, talks a lot about Congress’ culture. No wonder Indira Gandhi’s ‘Garibi Hatao’ continues to be Congress’ slogan even after 40 years.
Moreover, Congress President accusing anyone else of insulting farmers is a bit rich considering newly formed Congress governments in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have not been having a good time keeping promises to farmers. From speculations of loan waiver scams in both, Madhya Pradesh as well as Rajasthan, where non-existent names were found in the list of beneficiaries to waiving off as little as Rs 13 against a loan of Rs 24,000, Congress has done nothing but mock farmers. Despite the tall promises of loan waiver, the farmers in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka continue to commit suicide because of debt burden.
Rahul Gandhi has developed a habit to mouth-off platitudes which in reality, mean paltry little. He lies, he obfuscates and confuses and hopes something, anything would stick and earn him brownie points. And as we get closer to 2019, the malaise would just get deeper.
The acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal today presented the interim budget 2019 which is also the last budget of the first tenure of this government. Some sweeping announcements were made in the budget like the full tax rebate for individuals with up to 5 lakh rupees annual income, structured income support for farmers, mega pension for workers in the unorganised sector and much more.
While the budget appears to provide relief to the individual taxpayers and the farmers, it has caused deep restlessness among certain usual suspects in media. Some had a problem with the budget being presented in Hindi and some couldn’t stop worrying as to where the money will come from. Here are some “serious” concerns expressed by certain journalists over the budget and the witty reactions of people:
Still waiting to see what the catch is! Where will the money come from?! ??
As some journalists expressed their concern as to where the money would come from, people were quick to come up with suggestions.
The Money will come from Indians not choosing NDTV in our new TV Subscription pack! New TRAI Rules rock! Giving the Power back to the people! #AbkiBaar400Paarpic.twitter.com/2x2vlP4Oxh
People also questioned as to why these highly concerned individuals did not worry about money when Rahul Gandhi promised minimum universal basic income.
Goyal gave detailed numbers on how tax collection has improved under Modi govt, but you’re still asking this.
Pappu promised minimum income which will cost anywhere between ₹2-7 lakh crore, but you never asked him from where he will bring the money.#PliantMediahttps://t.co/RtSaUrRAHH
— Prominent Citizen Spaminder Bharti (@attomeybharti) February 1, 2019
Next in the line were some colonised brains raising objections over the use of Hindi in the budget, claiming half the country cannot understand the language.
Seems like certain sections of media can’t get over their compulsive disorder of finding faults in everything or anything the Modi government does. Time and again their bias stands exposed by the common people proving that they reflect anything but reality.
In a tweet that can only be construed as the Congress party acknowledging its President Rahul Gandhi’s newly acquired skills of the Unitary method in Mathematics, the official account of the party tweeted the revolutionary discovery that there’s a fundamental difference between Rs. 6000 per year and Rs. 500 per month.
In Budget 2019, one of the most significant announcements was the structured income support that will be provided to farmers through the Pradhan Mantri Krishan Samridhi Yojana. Rs. 6000 will be provided to farmers with less than 2 hectares of land annually in three instalments. It will cost the state Rs. 75,000 crores per year. In addition, a 2% interest subvention has been provided to farmers who practice animal husbandry and fisheries. An additional 1% interest subvention will be given if loans are repaid on time.
Congress took to Twitter to try and criticise this move. In its tweets, the Congress party asserted that while Rs. 6000 per year was a promise, Rs. 500 per month was the reality. And therefore, the promise of Rs. 6000 per year was a ‘Jumla’.
Via Twitter
If tweeting the embarrassment once wasn’t enough, the party posted it again. But this time, in Hindi.
But even then, the tweets were factually incorrect as the farmers will be paid the amount in three instalments and not Rs 500 every month.
While the Modi government gave people plenty to smile about through the announcements made by the Acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in his budget speech. the Congress party contributed to it through its tweets.
Pinku Didi inki maths ki class leti hai. Jha unkil approve karte hai. Fact checker Taklu uncle isko thumbs up dete hai ? https://t.co/CKDahtA4l8
Perfect example of “When she asks “call kyu nahi kiya?” and you say “phone band ho gaya tha” then she says “toh whatsapp kar lete” https://t.co/nZodG5tg9t
I am sure @RahulGandhi and @priyankac19 put their heads together to arrive at the calculation that 6000 per year is less than 500 per month. Two heads are better than one, but not if both are empty.??? https://t.co/2PvUyw60Mr
While the President of the Congress party could not ever be accused of possessing a high degree of intellect, it appears his creative ideas are rubbing off on other members of the party as well. However, Congress deserves to be congratulated for at least doing their arithmetic right.
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal today delivered the Union Budget 2019, which has brought a host of significant benefits for the middle class. Today FM announced a full rebate of income tax to people earning less than Rs 5 lakh per annum. The tax rebate is expected to benefit around 3 crore middle-class taxpayers.
Finance Minister Piyush Goyal before announcing the sops for the middle class, thanked them for their immense contribution to the nation building. He said it is because of the middle class, that the individual belonging to the poor and marginalised section, has access to a better way of life.
“Your tax helps provide dignity to our sisters and mothers with toilets and cooking gas connection” He further added. Be it the about the dignity of the retired soldier, or about health care to our around 50 crore citizens, FM Piyush Goyal said that it is the middle class which is helping those sections.
FM Goyal, praising the government efforts in the last four years said that the tax collection and tax base have shown a significant increase, which has helped the government inch towards moderate taxation and high compliance regime.
“It is, therefore, just and fair that some benefits from the tax reform must also be passed onto the middle-class taxpayers,” FM said. Due to restrictions of the interim budget, FM Goyal said that tax proposal can only be presented in the regular budget. Despite this, the finance minister announced reforms so as to give certainty to small taxpayers, especially the middle class, senior citizen and pensioners, at the beginning of the year. FM Goyal felt that such reforms should not wait for the full budget, and be announced now only.
In addition to the tax rebate, the standard deduction for salaried income has also been raised to ₹50,000 from current ₹40,000. The Finance minister Goyal also announced tax relief on interest income, as TDS threshold on interest on bank and post office deposits raised from ₹10,000 to ₹40,000.
Also, TDS threshold on rental income has also been raised from 1.8 lakhs to 2.4 lakhs. Capital gains from residential property sale will be eligible for exemption under section 54 for up to 2 properties bought.
The Middle-class has often complained about being sandwiched between the lower income group and rich section of society. The reforms like tax rebate up to Rs 5 lakh is bound to give the middle class a sigh of relief, as the burden on its shoulders stands curbed.
After the budget speech by Piyush Goyal, PM Modi also praised the contributions of the middle class.
PM: It’s generosity&honesty of middle class&upper middle class which provides tax to the nation through which schemes are formulated&there is welfare of poor. There was always the demand to exempt those, with annual income upto Rs 5 Lakh, from taxation. Our govt fulfilled this. pic.twitter.com/e69OaBvNFI
The PM stated that it is the generosity and honesty of the middle class and upper middle class which provides taxes to the nation and helps to formulate schemes for welfare.
Fact-checking in a nuanced job. One must research and be willing to go where the facts take them rather than where they want the facts to take them. Indiaspend, which is known as a biased “research organisation” and has been caught spreading communal disharmony several times, has a “fact-checking” arm, factchecker.in, which also lies profusely. Today, after Piyush Goyal’s Budget 2019 speech, factchecker.in decided to ‘fact-check’ the speech, and in the process, ended up spreading fake news themselves.
In one of their tweets, they claimed that acting Finance Miniter lied when he said ‘under Make in India, mobile and parts manufacturing have increased from 2 to more than 268 providing huge job opportunities’.
According to FactChecker.in, the truth is that there are 127 mobile manufacturing units in India according to a response in Lok Sabha.
However, FactChecker.in conveniently uses data from August 2018 to brand Piyush Goyal’s assertions as a lie.
However, if one digs a little further, one realises that according to November 2018 data, Piyush Goyal’s assertions are right on the mark.
HinduBusinessLine article
In November, The India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) had said that there are 268 mobile and accessories factories in India and not 120, as is often quoted by many senior leaders in the government.
ICEA had undertaken physical verification of all such facilities over a period of 2-3 months.
“ICEA and the industry were always clear that the number of units exceeded 120, which was usually reported by the government. The physical survey vindicated this belief and the total number of new factories reported as per this report stands at 268 and not 120. The corresponding employment number is 6.70 lakh and not 4.50 lakh,” it said.
They said, “accessory like powerbank is becoming a big industry in India with a market of around ₹2,000 crore, which may go up to ₹15,000 crore in the future”.
In fact, the ICEA had made a very significant observation. It said that in 2014, there were only 3 manufacturing units functioning in India with mobile handset manufacturing reducing significantly to 58 million unites as compared to 130 million in 2013. However, “Government’s policies and specific interventions along with the hard work of global and indigenous entrepreneurs have helped India attain the number two mobile handset manufacturing destination tag,” Pankaj Mohindroo, Chairman, ICEA said.
It had also said that owing to this rise, 6,50,000 jobs were created.
As is evident, FactChecker.in chose to pick up data from August 2018 instead of the more recent November 2018 data just to assert that Piyush Goyal had lied Budget 2019 speech.
