Highlights of the Budget 2022-23

Union Budget 2022-23:

On 1^st February 2022, The Union Minister for
Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Union Budget
2022-23 in Parliament.

The Union Budget seeks to complement macro-economic level
growth with a focus on micro-economic level all-inclusive welfare.
Entering Amrit Kaal, the 25 year long lead up to India @100
(Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav).

The Key Highlights of the Budget 2022-23:

GDP Rate: India’s economic growth (2021-22) estimated at
9.2% to be the highest among all large economies.

• Fiscal deficit in current year:
6.9% of GDP (against 6.8% in Budget Estimates).

• Fiscal deficit in 2022-23
estimated at 6.4% of GDP.

Amrit Kaal Four Priorities: the budget provides impetus for
growth along four priorities:

PM GatiShakti
Inclusive Development
Productivity Enhancement & Investment, Sunrise
opportunities, Energy Transition, and Climate Action.
Financing of investments

PM GatiShakti:

The seven engines that drive PM GatiShakti are Roads,
Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass Transport, Waterways and Logistics
Infrastructure.

PM GatiShkati National Master Plan

The scope of PM GatiShakti National Master Plan will
encompass the seven engines for economic transformation, seamless multimodal
connectivity and logistics efficiency.

The projects pertaining to these 7 engines in the National
Infrastructure Pipeline will be aligned with PM GatiShakti framework.

Productivity Linked Incentive:

• 60 lakh new jobs to be created under the productivity linked
incentive scheme in 14 sectors.

• PLI Schemes have the potential to create an additional
production of Rs 30 lakh crore.

Other Major Highlights of Budget 2022-23:

Road Transport:

National Highways Network to be expanded by 25000 Km in 2022-23.
Rs 20000 Crore to be mobilized for National Highways Network
expansion.
Multimodal Logistics Parks
Contracts to be awarded through PPP mode in 2022-23 for
implementation of Multimodal Logistics Parks at four locations.

Railways:

One Station One Product concept to help local businesses
& supply chains.
2000 Km of railway network to be brought under Kavach, the
indigenous world class technology and capacity augmentation in 2022-23.
400 new generation Vande Bharat Trains to be manufactured
during the next three years.
100 PM GatiShakti Cargo terminals for multimodal logistics
to be developed during the next three years.

Parvatmala:

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.
Inclusive Development

Agriculture:

Rs. 2.37 lakh crore direct payment to 1.63 crore farmers for
procurement of wheat and paddy.
Chemical free Natural farming to be promoted throughout the
county. Initial focus is on farmer’s lands in 5 Km wide corridors along river
Ganga.
NABARD to facilitate fund with blended capital to finance
startups for agriculture & rural enterprise.
‘Kisan Drones’ for crop assessment, digitization of land
records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients.

Ken Betwa project:

1400 crore outlay for implementation of the Ken – Betwa link
project.
9.08 lakh hectares of farmers’ lands to receive irrigation
benefits by Ken-Betwa link project.

MSME:

Udyam, e-shram, NCS and ASEEM portals to be interlinked.
130 lakh MSMEs provided additional credit under Emergency
Credit Linked Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS).
ECLGS to be extended up to March 2023.
Guarantee cover under ECLGS to be expanded by Rs 50000 Crore
to total cover of Rs 5 Lakh Crore.
Rs 2 lakh Crore additional credit for Micro and Small
Enterprises to be facilitated under the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and
Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).
Raising and Accelerating MSME performance (RAMP) programme
with outlay of Rs 6000 Crore to be rolled out.

Skill Development:

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).

Education:

‘One class-One TV channel’ programme of PM eVIDYA to be
expanded to 200 TV channels.
Virtual labs and skilling e-labs to be set up to promote
critical thinking skills and simulated learning environment.
High-quality e-content will be developed for delivery
through Digital Teachers.
Digital University for world-class quality universal
education with personalised learning experience to be established.

Health:

An open platform for National Digital Health Ecosystem to be
rolled out.
‘National Tele Mental Health Programme’ for quality mental
health counselling and care services to be launched.
A network of 23 tele-mental health centres of excellence
will be set up, with NIMHANS being the nodal centre and International Institute
of Information Technology-Bangalore (IIITB) providing technology support.

Saksham Anganwadi:

Integrated benefits to women and children through Mission
Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.
Two lakh anganwadis to be upgraded to Saksham Anganwadis.

Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal:

Rs. 60,000 crore allocated to cover 3.8 crore households in
2022-23 under Har Ghar, Nal se Jal.

Housing for All:

Rs. 48,000 crore allocated for completion of 80 lakh houses
in 2022-23 under PM Awas Yojana.

Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East
Region (PM-DevINE):

New scheme PM-DevINE
launched to fund infrastructure and social development projects in the
North-East.
An initial allocation of Rs. 1,500 crore made to enable
livelihood activities for youth and women under the scheme.

Vibrant Villages Programme:

Vibrant Villages Programme for development of Border
villages with sparse population, limited connectivity and infrastructure on the
northern border.

Banking:

100 per cent of 1.5 lakh post offices to come on the core
banking system.
Scheduled Commercial Banks to set up 75 Digital Banking
Units (DBUs) in 75 districts.

e-Passport

e-Passports with embedded chip and futuristic technology to
be rolled out.

Urban Planning:

Modernization of building byelaws, Town Planning Schemes
(TPS), and Transit Oriented Development (TOD) will be implemented.
Battery swapping policy to be brought out for setting up
charging stations at scale in urban areas.

Land Records Management:

Unique Land Parcel Identification Number for IT-based
management of land records.

AtmaNirbharta in Defence:

68% of capital procurement budget earmarked for domestic
industry in 2022-23, up from 58% in 2021-22.
Defence R&D to be opened up for industry, startups and
academia with 25% of defence R&D budget earmarked.
Independent nodal umbrella body to be set up for meeting
testing and certification requirements.

Sunrise Opportunities:

Government contribution to be provided for R&D in
Sunrise Opportunities like Artificial Intelligence, Geospatial Systems and
Drones, Semiconductor and its eco-system, Space Economy, Genomics and
Pharmaceuticals, Green Energy, and Clean Mobility Systems.

Energy Transition and Climate Action:

Additional allocation of Rs. 19,500 crore for Production
Linked Incentive for manufacture of high efficiency solar modules to meet the
goal of 280 GW of installed solar power by 2030.

Five to seven per cent biomass pellets to be co-fired in
thermal power plants:

CO2 savings of 38 MMT annually,
Extra income to farmers and job opportunities to locals,
Help avoid stubble burning in agriculture fields.
Four pilot projects to be set up for coal gasification and
conversion of coal into chemicals for the industry
Financial support to farmers belonging to Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes, who want to take up agro-forestry.

GIFT-IFSC:

World-class foreign universities and institutions to be
allowed in the GIFT City.
An International Arbitration Centre to be set up for timely
settlement of disputes under international jurisprudence.

Digital Rupee:

Introduction of Digital Rupee by the Reserve Bank of India
starting 2022-23.
Providing Greater Fiscal Space to States.

Taxes:

Income tax slab – No change
Corporate Tax slab – No change
Alternate Minimum Tax paid by cooperatives brought down from
18.5 per cent to 15 per cent.
Surcharge on cooperative societies reduced from 12 per cent
to 7 per cent for those having total income of more than Rs 1 crore and up to
Rs 10 crores.
Tax relief to persons with disability
Health and Education Cess
Remarkable progress in GST
GST revenues are buoyant despite the pandemic – Taxpayers
deserve applause for this growth.
Customs Administration of (Special Economic Zones) SEZs to
be fully IT driven and function on the Customs National Portal – shall be
implemented by 30th September 2022.
Tariff measure to encourage blending of fuel.
Unblended fuel to attract an additional differential excise
duty of Rs 2/ litre from the 1st of October 2022 – to encourage blending of
fuel.

Source: PIB