Budget 2021: 'We have spent and we have spent', says Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman talked about the guiding philosophy behind this year's budget, as she held a post-budget press conference on Monday afternoon.

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She said that the government has made the accounts more transparent.

"We are absolutely upfront with fiscal deficit. We not only ensured repeated review of capital expenditure and ensured that spending was encouraged and not delayed," said Sitharaman.

"Our fiscal deficit which started at 3.5 per cent during February 2020 has increased to 9.5 per cent of GDP. So we have spent, we have spent and we have spent. At the same time, we have given a clear glide path for deficit management," the finance minister added.

She said that the budget comes at a time when the economy needed an impetus. "All of us decided to give impetus to the economy and that impetus, we thought, would be qualitatively spent and give necessary demand push if we choose to spend big on infrastructure," said Sitharaman.

"If there are two important features of this Budget, it is that we chose to spend big on infrastructure which spans across roads, power generation, bridges, ports and so on. As a second feature, I tend to the need of the healthcare sector and even there, capacities for better health management had to be brought in in light of what we had gone through last year," she added.

The finance minister addressed the press conference along with her entire team who was involved in the preparation of the budget.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too has called the budget transparent and said it has been presented amid unprecedented circumstances.

"Today's budget shows India's confidence and will instil self-confidence in the world. The budget has the vision of self-reliance and features every section of the society," said the Prime Minister.

He also said that the budget focuses on increasing farmers' income. "Several measures have been taken in this direction. Farmers will be able to get loans easily. Provisions have been made to strengthen APMC markets with the help of Agriculture Infrastructure Fund."

Watch: For infra push, ₹5.5 lakh crore expenditure announced

India boosted its healthcare spending by 137 per cent in a budget unveiled on Monday and lifted caps on foreigners investing in its vast insurance market to help revive an economy that suffered its deepest recorded slump as a result of the pandemic.

Delivering her budget statement to Parliament, Sitharaman projected a fiscal deficit of 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product for 2021/22.