Tax, propose, government, crore the most used words in Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget 2020 speech

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget 2020 speech included 13,331 words with the most used being tax which hit a century and was used 101 times by the Finance Minister. Apart from tax, the other words which make the top 10 list include propose (95 times), government (94), crore (68), year (65), India (60), provide (57), lakh (56), up (51) and income (44).

Budget 2020 saw Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaking for over two hours and 40 minutes with her speech copy running into 45 pages. She spoke about three themes of the Union Budget - aspirational India, economic development and caring society.

Her speech included 13,331 words with the most used being tax which hit a century and was used 101 times by the Finance Minister. Apart from tax, the other words which make the top 10 list include propose (95 times), government (94), crore (68), year (65), India (60), provide (57), lakh (56), up (51) and income (44).

She did not finish reading the last two pages of her speech after feeling unwell. Rising to present her Budget 2020 speech, Sitharaman started by highlighting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi received a massive mandate to form the government again in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

"With renewed vigour, under his leadership, we commit ourselves to serve the people of India, with all humility and dedication. People of India have unequivocally given their jan-aadesh for not just political stability and also reposed faith in our economic policies. This is the Budget to boost their incomes and enhance their purchasing power. Only through higher growth we can achieve that and have our youth gainfully and meaningfully employed. Let our businesses be innovative, healthy and solvent with use of technology," she stated.

"We have moved on from a growth rate of just over 4% in 1950s to 6% in 1980s and1990s. However, during 2014-19 we clocked growth of 7.4% on average with inflation, averaging around 4.5%. It is worthwhile to note that inflation was close to 9% in the last two decades of the last millennium and ranged 10.5% during 2009-14. Between 2006-16, India was able to raise 271 million people out of poverty, which we all should be proud of," the Finance Minister asserted.

She also proposed a new scheme for individual taxpayers under which income tax rates will be lower for those who forgo certain deductions and exemptions.

"Under the new regime, an individual shall be required to pay tax at the reduced rate of 10 per cent for income between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7. 5 lakh against the current rate of 20 per cent. For income between Rs 7.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh, the person will pay at the reduced rate of 15 per cent against the current rate of 20 per cent. Similarly, for the income between Rs 10 Lakh to Rs 12.5 lakh, the taxpayer will pay at a reduced rate of 20 per cent against the current rate of 30 per cent. The income between Rs 12.5 lakh to Rs  15 lakh will be taxed at the reduced rate of 25 per cent against the existing rate of 30 per cent while incomes above Rs 15 lakh will be continued to be taxed at the rate of 30 per cent. Those earning up to Rs 5 lakh shall not pay any tax either in the old regime or in the new regime.