Budget 2022: 'Tax' most mentioned word in Nirmala Sitharaman's speech

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget 2022 speech focused on taxes, and the word 'Tax' was mentioned 46 times during the address. This was the most mentioned word by Sitharaman in her address to the Parliament. 

The Finance Minister made several announcements related to taxes in her Budget 2022 speech, including the proposal of a 30 per cent tax on virtual digital assets with no deductions allowed. She also explained that TDS of 1 per cent would be made on the transfer of digital assets. Sending or receiving digital assets in the form of gifts would be taxed at the hands of recipients.

Sitharaman also announced that taxpayers can file updated returns within 2 years to declare any missed out income. She added that the tax deduction limit has bee increased to 14 per cent on employers contribution to NPS account of state govt employees,

Apart from Tax, other words that got repeated the most were - digital/online, infrastructure, finance, economy, education and health. Here are the Top 12 words most frequently used by Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech: 

1. Tax- 46 times 
2. Digital/Online- 28 times 
3. Infrastructure- 27 times 
4. Finance- 24 times 
5. States - 20 times
6. Economy- 19 times
7. Education- 20 times
8. Growth- 19 times
9. Investment- 18 times
10. Health- 16 times
11. Farmers-16 times 
12. Customs-15 times 

This year, Sitharaman made her shortest Budget speech yet.  Sitharaman started the speech at 11:00 am in the Parliament and concluded at 12:30 pm. The speech ran for 90 minutes, which is the shortest during her tenure as the Finance Minister of the country. 

This year's Budget speech was nearly half the length of last year's speech which ran for 162 minutes, which also holds the record for the longest budget speech ever. During the course of this speech, she broke her own record of July 2019 - her maiden Budget - when she had spoken for 2 hours and 17 minutes.

Also read: Budget 2022 Live Updates: No change in personal tax, 5G coming to India by 2023, key takeaways

Also read: Budget 2022: No change in income tax rates and slabs