Contrary to her lengthy budget announcements in the past, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s 2022 speech was the shortest ever by the number of words.
The FY23 Budget speech—her fourth as the Union finance minister—was about 9,690-word-long and went on for about an hour and a half. Her longest was more than 20,000 words in FY21 and took two hours and 42 minutes.
That may be because the minister skipped announcing the key divestment target and allocations made to schemes such as the rural jobs guarantee scheme.
But she sure made some Twitter users happy!
The other highlights from her budget speech were a spike in FY23 capital expenditure by 35% and more-than-expected gross borrowings. The fiscal deficit target, however, was lowered than the revised estimates for the ongoing fiscal, along with food, fuel and fertilizer subsidies.
The bonds market was not enthused. The 10-year bond yield spiked 20 basis points to 6.89%—the highest since July 1, 2019.
No substantial changes were made to the direct tax either.
Sitharaman also announced a new provision on crypto tax.
Read the full Budget 2022 speech here:
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