KIIT School of Commerce & Economics Organizes Pre-budget Webinar
KIIT School of Commerce & Economics has always tried to make its students market-friendly and industry oriented. As a part of this process, it organized a Webinar on the theme “Budget 2021- Expectations Ahead” on 31st January 2020 to discuss and deliberate on the expectations and aspirations of new India from the Budget-21, which will be presented on 1st February 2021 in Parliament by the Honorable Finance Minister, Government of India.
In his welcome address, Prof (Dr.) Jayanta Kumar Parida, Director, KIIT School of Commerce & Economics congratulated the School for organizing such a webinar, highlighted its achievements in such a short period and thanked Prof. Sasmita Samanta, Pro-Vice Chancellor, KIIT-DU for her guidance.
Speaking on the importance of this year’s budget for Indian economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic and global economic slowdown, Prof Parida highlighted some important expectations of academia. He expressed his optimism on increase in the spending on the Education sector in light of the high aims set by the New Education Policy-2020. Prof. Parida appreciated that the first budget of this decade is going to be the very first paperless budget of India.
Dr. G. Tulasi Rao, Professor, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University, Andhra Pradesh said that it expects the Government will be focusing on the revival of various sectors which are hard hit due to the pandemic and economic slowdown. Highlighting the recently announced Rs. 1 lakh crore stimulus package being announced for the Banking Sector, Prof Rao said that the focus of the Government should be curbing the Non-Performing Assets (NPA) problems which are bludgeoning for quite some time now.
Prof. S. G. Hundekar, joining the webinar from Karnataka University, said that the education and health care sectors should get the highest priority. The pandemic showed us how ill prepared our healthcare facilities are, he stated. Prof. Hundekar also highlighted that to bank upon the demographic dividend of India, now it’s time when we must shift our priority from Gross Enrollment Ratio to inculcation of vocational skills in the Education sector. He also expressed his expectation that public investment, especially in the infrastructure sector, will find a significant space in Budget 2021.
Prof. M. L. Vadera, Professor & Advisor, Vyas Institute of Higher Education, Rajasthan highlighted the expectations of the middle-class Indian society. He touched upon various issues starting from the increase in the exemption limit in income tax, reducing the tax burden on consumer durable, etc.
Prof. Debabrata Mitra from University of North Bengal highlighted the various sections under Chapter VI (A) of the Income Tax Act, where he expected to see further relaxation for common people. Prof Mitra reiterated that this budget is going to be a revival one becoming a watershed movement to give impetus to the Indian economy.
Prof. Sudhir Kumar Shukla, Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Uttar Pradesh spoke on the expectations from the business fraternity focusing the hospitality sector and manufacturing sector, which were hit the hardest because of the lock-downs and shut-downs in the most parts of the country amid the Covid-19 spread. Prof. Shukla expected some strong policy measures through Budget-2021 and ease in GST in bringing back the economy on track.
The Program ended with the vote of thanks by Dr. Debasi Pahi on behalf of KIIT School of Commerce & Economics to all the resource persons, guests and participants. All the students & faculty members of the School and people from academia participated in the program.