With the Finance Minister making use of the first 40 minutes of her 92 minute long Budget speech to reiterate and extend the existing schemes while clarifying on procedural matters, the tone and composure of the wording signaled the stability that the incumbent government portrayed in its governance structure which needed no drastic change.
While playing it safe in economic terms might allow for recovery from the adverse effects that the prolonged Pandemic has effected on the India’s overall growth rate, an investor would chose the bullish approach when he believes that the overall market will go higher owing to the policy inputs that the Annual Budget presents. And this was highly evident with the Sensex soaring 848 points on Budget Day closing at 1.46 % higher.
The main takeaways from the 2022 Budget speech which could bear significance to the Goan culture and economy were as follows:
The Finance Minister acknowledged that Hospitality companies were under stress post the second wave of COVID-19.
The Goan hospitality sector was particularly hit hard by the successive waves of the pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns followed by curbs on cross-border movements of tourists. Consequently, the Budget 2022 focuses on supporting the sector by infusing a new lease of life for the industry which has traditionally played the role of a significant economic multiplier in the state.
What really sounded promising was the government’s decision to extend the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) up to March 2023 while earmarking an additional Rs 50,000 crore for hospitality and related sectors.
For Goan hoteliers and tourism operators, the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) would aid in reviving the tourism related activities, while preventing their loan accounts from going under.
The scheme would help to retain jobs in the hospitality and allied sectors while stopping the business loans contracted by hospitality providers from turning into non-performing assets (NPAs). Consequently, the Goan tourism industry would be able to turn around faster, post the relaxation of the Pandemic restrictions.
Another posterity measure that could enable the shrimp aquaculture industry in Goa was that the government proposed to reduce the duty on shrimp input with a view to boost exports in shrimp products to other markets.
The Goan agricultural sector could expect the promotion of chemical-free, natural farming while innovating the use of Kisan drones for crop assessment and for spraying pesticides. The budget speech also earmarked funding for startups in the agriculture and rural enterprise which could benefit Goa immensely in attaining agricultural self-sufficiency.
On the educational front, the 2022 Budget has envisioned the establishment of a Digital University with educational content to be made in different Indian languages including the Konkani language, which would be based on the hub and spoke network model.
Incidentally, the One Class, One TV educational channel would also be expanded from 12 to 200 TV Channels in order to provide supplementary education in all regional languages including Konkani while making up for losses of formal education due to COVID-19.
The 2022 budgetary promise would now require the efficient implementation of policy considerations in the state so that the intended beneficiaries shall begin to see the economic growth as intended.
