Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey has had exclusive talks with CNBC-Awaaz before the budget. In this, he told that the expenditure on the corona virus vaccine is being assessed. Only then the budget will be determined.
new Delhi. Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey has said that the cost of corona vaccine will be known only after all the prices are fixed. Estimates of the price of Corona Vaccine and its logistic cost are continuing. Only after the assessment is complete, it will be decided how much budget will be set for it. Sectors like hotels, tourism can get relief in the budget. In this conversation with CNBC-Awaaz, Finance Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey has said that there are still problems in these sectors and will take every possible step in the budget.
Also Read: Loan Moratorium: Petition on RBI Governor and SBI officials, accused of ignoring Supreme Court order
Question: Is there a challenge in these sectors, is not the reason behind this, that in the relief package given recently, no announcement was made for these sectors and now help is needed?
Answer:He said that many activities are still going on in a very limited way. Hotels, airlines are also running in a very limited way. The government did not help, it is not correct to say. What sectors will get in the budget, they will tell in the budget. Right now we are talking about every related sector regarding the budget. Trying to understand the problem of every sector. What needs to be done for the problem of the sector is being considered. In which sector, which scheme needs to increase spending, it will be announced in the budget.
Question: How encouraging is the GST collection data?
Answer:Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that tax recovery under GST in December is the highest ever. Tax recovery is generally lower in December, yet this time there is a record recovery. Improving economy is a major reason behind GST tax collection. Steps taken to prevent tax evasion have also been a reason for increasing collection. The results of matching of income tax and GST returns are getting good results. The improvement in GST system has also led to an increase in recovery. From January 1, electronic invoices have been made mandatory for businessmen above Rs 100 crore. The decline in recovery under income tax has stopped. There was a 22 per cent decline in income tax by the end of September, which rose to 9.9 per cent in December.
Question: Looking at the figures of GST collection, do you think there is any sector where there is a problem?
Answer: There is still a challenge in tourism, hospitality, transport. Corona still has influence on these sectors. Still many activities are going on in a very limited way. Hotels, airlines are also running in a very limited way.
Question: After the increased tax collection, is the government in a position to spend more?
Answer: The pressure on revenue has not been completely eliminated with the increased tax collection. Tax collections have increased in the last one to two months. The loss in the first 4-5 months cannot be repaid.
Question: How will the budget be different from the rest of the budget?
Answer: Recently, we have given many self-sufficient packages, we will do whatever is possible in this budget.
Dispute on the trust scheme?
Talking about the trust scheme from the dispute, Ajay Bhushan Pandey said that applications in the trust scheme have started coming more from the controversy in December. So far, 96 thousand applications have come under the scheme. At present, 5 lakh 10 disputes are pending. This scheme has been much more successful than all the previous such schemes.
