Why In News
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a bigger ₹39.45 lakh crore Budget, with higher spending on highways to affordable housing with a view to fire up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic.
- A Made in India tablet has replaced the traditional ‘Bahi Khata’ as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman leaves the Finance Ministry’s office to go to the Parliament to present the Budget.
Fom where rupee Come and Goes
- For every rupee in the government coffer, 58 paise will come from direct and indirect taxes, 35 paise from borrowings and other liabilities, 5 paise from non-tax revenue like disinvestment and 2 paise from non-debt capital receipts, according to the Budget documents for 2022-23.
- Goods and services tax will contribute 16 paise in every rupee revenue, while corporation tax will contribute 15 paise to each rupee earned.
- The government is also looking to earn 7 paise for every rupee from Union excise duty and 5 paise from customs duty.
- Income tax will yield 15 paise to every rupee collection.
- Allocation for the defence stood at 8 paise.
- Expenditure on central sector schemes will be 15 paise, while the allocation for centrally-sponsored schemes will be 9 paise.
- The expenditure on the ‘Finance Commission and other transfers’ is pegged at 10 paise. Subsidies and pension will account for 8 paise and 4 paise, respectively, in each rupee spending.
- Government will spend 9 paise in every rupee on ‘other expenditures’.
Key facts of Budget 2022- 23
- GDP of Country is expected to grow at 9.27 per cent.
- Focus areas:
- PM Gati Shakti, Inclusive Development, Productivity Enhancement, Sunrise Opportunities, Energy Transition, Climate Action and Financing of investments.
- Lay the foundation & give a blueprint of the economy over ‘Amrit Kal’ of next 25 years – from India at 75 to India at 100.
- Startups will be promoted to facilitate Drone Shakti to make drone a service. In select ITIs in all states, courses will be started.
- Govt continuously encouraging digital banking. Taking forward, 75 digital banking units will be set up in 75 districts.
- Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme will be extended up to March 2023 and the guaranteed cover will be expanded by Rs 50,000 crore to cover an amount of Rs 5 lakh crore.
- Issuance of e-passports will be rolled out in 2022-23 to make it easier for citizens. Ease of business 2.0 will be launched.
- 5G spectrum auctions to be carried out in calendar 2022 to enable the launch of services within FY22-23.
- Digital rupee to be issued using blockchain and other technologies and will be issued by RBI starting 2022-23. This will give a big boost to the economy. This will give a big boost to the economy. Introduction of central bank digital currency to boost digital economy, and lays down a solid plan of the government to have a public digital currency.
- Income from transfer of digital assets (Cryptocurrency) to be charged 30% tax, plus 1% tax on the transaction.
- Corporate surcharge to be reduced from 12% to 7%, says Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
- Existing tax benefits for startups, which were offered redemption of taxes for 3 consecutive years, to be extended by 1 more year.
- Proposes fiscal deficit of 4.5% of GDP by 2025/26
- Projects fiscal deficit of 6.4% of GDP in 2022/23
- Revised fiscal deficit for 2021/22 at 6.9% of GDP
- Total expenditure in 2022/23 seen at 39.45 trillion rupees
- States will be allowed 4% fiscal deficit to GDP in FY23
- 50 year interest free loans over and above normal borrowing allocated to states
- Scheme for financial assistance to states for capital investment outlay to be 1 trillion rupees in 2022/23
- 100% of 1.5 lakh post offices will come on the core banking system, enabling financial inclusion and access to accounts through net banking, mobile banking, ATMs, and also providing online transfer of funds between post office accounts and bank accounts.
- This will be helpful especially for farmers and senior citizens in rural areas, enabling interoperability, and financial inclusion.
- Fiscal Deficit target set at 6.4% for FY23:
- FY23 total expenditure seen at Rs 39.45 lakh crore.
- Total Receipts other than borrowing seen at Rs 22.84 lakh crore.
- Revised Fiscal Deficit 6.9% of GDP in FY22 as against 6.8% in Budget estimates.
- Fiscal Deficit target set at 6.4% for FY23.
- National Telehealth programme:
- Announced a National telehealth programme in Budget 2022. An open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem will be rolled out. It will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities The pandemic has accentuated mental health problems in people of all ages.
- States will be encouraged to revise syllabi of agricultural universities to meet needs of natural, zero-budget & organic farming, modern-day agriculture. One class, one TV channel’ program of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12.
- PM Gati Shakti plans one of the four pillars of growth. 25,000 km of national highways to be built in 2022-23.
- 400 new-generation Vande Bharat trains with higher efficiency and better facilities for passengers will be developed in the next three years. Over 2,000 km of the rail network to be brought under the indigenous world-class technology KAWACH, for safety and capacity augmentation.
- India’s farmers
- Procurement of wheat in Rabi season 2021-22 and the estimated procurement of paddy in Kharif season 2021-22 will cover 1,208 lakh metric tonnes of wheat and paddy from 163 lakh farmers & Rs 2.37 lakh crores will be the direct payment of MSP value to their accounts.
- Chemical-free natural farming to be promoted in India
- Use of drones to be promoted for crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients. Fund to be facilitated through NABARD to finance start-ups for agriculture and rural enterprise which are relevant for the farm produce value chain.
- In 2022-23, 80 lakh houses will be completed for identified beneficiaries of PM Awas Yojana; 60,000 houses will be identified as beneficiaries for PM Awas Yojana in rural & urban areas.
- 60,000 crore allocated for providing access to tap water to 3.8 crore households. In 2022-23, 80 lakh households will be identified for the affordable housing scheme.
- 68% of the capital procurement budget for Defence to be earmarked for domestic industry to promote Aatmanirbharta and reduce dependence on imports.
- This is up from 58% last fiscal. Defense R&D will be opened up for industry, startups and academia with 25% of the defence R&D budget.
- National Ropeways Development Program, Parvatmala to be taken up on PPP mode.
- Contracts to be awarded in 2022-23 for 8 ropeway projects of 60 Km length.
- Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and Livelihood (DESH-Stack e-portal) will be launched to empower citizens to skill, reskill or upskill through on-line training.
- Startups will be promoted to facilitate ‘Drone Shakti’ and for Drone-As-A-Service (DrAAS).
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