UNION BUDGET 2023-24

 

UNION BUDGET 2023-24: HIGHLIGHTS

The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2023-24 in Parliament. The highlights of the Budget are as follows:

·       Per capita income has more than doubled to ₹1.97 lakh in around nine years.

·       Indian economy has increased in size from being 10th to 5th largest in the world in the past nine years.

·       EPFO membership has more than doubled to 27 crore.

·       7,400 crore digital payments of ₹126 lakh crore has taken place through UPI in 2022.

·       11.7 crore household toilets constructed under Swachh Bharat Mission.

·       9.6 crore LPG connections provided under Ujjwala.

·       220 crore covid vaccination of 102 crore persons.

·       47.8 crore PM Jan Dhan bank accounts.

·       Insurance cover for 44.6 crore persons under PM Suraksha Bima and PM Jeevan Jyoti Yojana.

·       Cash transfer of ₹2.2 lakh crore to over 11.4 crore farmers under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi.

·       Seven priorities of the budget ‘Saptarishi’ are inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector.

·       Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program with an outlay of ₹2200 crore to be launched to boost availability of disease-free, quality planting material for high value horticultural crops.

·       Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF) will be established through use of priority Sector Lending shortfall, which will be managed by the national Housing Bank, and will be used by public agencies to create urban infrastructure in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

·       Entity DigiLocker to be setup for use by MSMEs, large business and charitable trusts to store and share documents online securely.

·       100 labs to be setup for 5G services based application development to realize a new range of opportunities, business models, and employment potential. 

· 500 new ‘waste to wealth’ plants under GOBARdhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme to be established for promoting circular economy at total investment of Rs 10,000 crore. 5 per cent compressed biogas mandate to be introduced for all organizations marketing natural and bio gas.

· Centre to facilitate one crore farmers to adopt natural farming over the next three years. For this, 10,000 Bio-Input Resource Centres to be set-up, creating a national-level distributed micro-fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing network.

· Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0, to be launched to skill lakhs of youth within the next three years covering new age courses for Industry 4.0 like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills.

· 30 Skill India International Centres to be set up across different States to skill youth for international opportunities.

· Revamped credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs to take effect from 1st April 2023 through infusion of Rs 9,000 crore in the corpus. This scheme would enable additional collateral-free guaranteed credit of Rs 2 lakh crore and also reduce the cost of the credit by about 1 per cent.

· Central Processing Centre to be setup for faster response to companies through centralized handling of various forms filed with field offices under the Companies Act.

· The maximum deposit limit for Senior Citizen Savings Scheme to be enhanced from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh.

· Targeted Fiscal Deficit to be below 4.5% by 2025-26.

·       Agriculture Accelerator Fund to be set-up to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs in rural areas.

·       To make India a global hub for 'Shree Anna', the Indian Institute of Millet Research, Hyderabad will be supported as the Centre of Excellence for sharing best practices, research and technologies at the international level.

·       ₹20 lakh crore agricultural credit targeted at animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries

·       A new sub-scheme of PM Matsya Sampada Yojana with targeted investment of ₹6,000 crore to be launched to further enable activities of fishermen, fish vendors, and micro & small enterprises, improve value chain efficiencies, and expand the market.

·       Digital public infrastructure for agriculture to be built as an open source, open standard and inter operable public good to enable inclusive farmer centric solutions and support for growth of agri-tech industry and start-ups.

·       Computerisation of 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) with an investment of ₹2,516 crore initiated.

· PAN will be used as the common identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies to bring in Ease of Doing Business.

· 95 per cent of the forfeited amount relating to bid or performance security, will be returned to MSME’s by government and government undertakings in cases the MSME’s failed to execute contracts during Covid period.

· Result Based Financing to better allocate scarce resources for competing development needs.

· Green Credit Programme to be notified under the Environment (Protection) Act to incentivize and mobilize additional resources for environmentally sustainable and responsive actions.

· A unified Skill India Digital platform to be launched for enabling demand-based formal skilling, linking with employers including MSMEs, and facilitating access to entrepreneurship schemes.

· National Financial Information Registry to be set up to serve as the central repository of financial and ancillary information for facilitating efficient flow of credit, promoting financial inclusion, and fostering financial stability. A new legislative framework to be designed in consultation with RBI to govern this credit public infrastructure.

 

Revised Estimates 2022-23:

§   The total receipts other than borrowings is Rs 24.3 lakh crore, of which the net tax receipts are Rs 20.9 lakh crore.

§   The total expenditure is Rs 41.9 lakh crore, of which the capital expenditure is about Rs 7.3 lakh crore.

§   The fiscal deficit is 6.4 per cent of GDP, adhering to the Budget Estimate.

 

Budget Estimates 2023-24:

§   The total receipts other than borrowings is estimated at Rs 27.2 lakh crore and the total expenditure is estimated at Rs 45 lakh crore.

§   The net tax receipts are estimated at Rs. 23.3 lakh crore.

§   The fiscal deficit is estimated to be 5.9 per cent of GDP.

§   To finance the fiscal deficit in 2023-24, the net market borrowings from dated securities are estimated at Rs. 11.8 lakh crore.

§   The gross market borrowings are estimated at Rs. 15.4 lakh crore.

P.Agash (21UCM002)

S.Divakar (21UCM016)

II B.Com A