Here’s What Women From Across Industries Thought About FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget 2022

The Union Budget 2022, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday, February 1, 2022, was full of hits and misses. But mostly misses. I can say that as a common woman, because jahaan tak humaara sawaal hai, we watch the Union Budget only for one thing: Personal Income Tax slabs! There were also expectations of some policies that might benefit the work-from-home situation, a boost for women entrepreneurs and the employment sector that was hit hard during the pandemic. But not much relief was granted. Even the good news about crypto suddenly turned sour with the 30% tax and TDS that will now be levied on cryptocurrency assets. There have been repeated calls and cases made for gender budgeting in India over the years because, clearly, the female population of our country needs this leg up to be on equal footing with men. Alas!

Personally, I found the acknowledgement of the mental health struggles of the citizens one very worthy element of the Budget. The impetus to the healthcare industry with a specific focus on mental health as well is the need of the hour, and in many ways, it does help women tremendously since they have gotten the worse end of the stick during the pandemic.

So what else did the women of our country think about FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget 2022, both as individual taxpayers and as members of different industries? We spoke to some of them to pick their brains on this and here’s what they have to say.

Also Read: Hautetalk: Budget 2022’s Boost To Mental Health Sector Can Benefit Women Who Suffered From COVID-19 Pandemic Induced Anxiety And Depression

“Poor gender budgeting and discouraging for cryptocurrency”

Issues of Gender Budgeting, support for women entrepreneurs, or job opportunities for women employees were not addressed in the Budget 2022-23.

From the viewpoint of a Trader and Investor, these are a few important factors being announced in the Budget 2022-23:

Flat 30% tax on income from Crypto Assets. Also, no set off to be allowed in case of losses on such virtual digital assets. This along with the government launching its own digital currency is an indication that the government intends to discourage the use of cryptos as currency.

Surcharge on long-term capital gains on transfer of any financial assets capped at 15%. This was only applicable to the sale of listed stocks and equity mutual funds but now extended to all assets. This is beneficial for investors of unlisted stocks of start-ups.

Overall the Budget was focused on increasing CAPEX investments and road construction. In the coming months, the sectors that look strong are Cement and Metal Sectors.

  – Hetvi Kamdar (Stock Market Trader & Trainer, CMT candidate)

 

Also Read: Budget 2022 Memes Trend As People Relate Over Middle-Class And Crypto Miner’s Plight

“Negative impact on footwear industry, small business owners”

The government just announced all footwear items to be taxed at 12% which is a 7% increase from 5% last year  and this has hit the footwear industry hard. There has been a negative impact in the beginning of the year with raw material prices increasing due to the increase in GST and the onset of the third wave in the ongoing pandemic. We hope to see some tax relief in the upcoming budget so that small business owners don’t get impacted in this financial year. 

– Drishti Doshi (Founder, Junipero)

Also Read: Union Budget 2022: Clothes Are Getting Cheaper And Shoes Become Costlier, Take A Look At The Full List

“Negligible impact on jewellery industry”

The impact will be marginal. The import duty on polished diamonds has been reduced to 5% from the current rate of 10% – this will primarily impact solitaires of 1 carat and above only. Further, no such reduction has been announced on import duties for gold. However both gold and diamonds have seen such a big jump in prices across the last year, that the overall impact of this reduction for the Jewellery industry will be negligible.

– Prerna Rajpal (Founder and Chief Designer, AMARIS)

What did you think of the Union Budget 2022? Drop your thoughts, ladies!

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