Highlights of Union Budget 2023-24

Here are some budget highlights for the year 2023: 

• New tax regime to become the default tax regime
• No tax on income up to Rs 7 lakh a year in the new tax regime
• Govt increases in the tax rebate from Rs 5 lakh to lacks in the new tax regime

Four new slabs in the new tax regime:

• No income tax till Rs 3 lakh income Rs 0 -3 lakh –    Nil
• Rs 3-6 lakh 5%
• Rs 6-9 lakh 10%
• Rs 9-12 lakh 15%
• Rs 12-15 lakh 20%

Indirect Taxes:

• 16% increase in NCCD on certain cigarettes
• 45% of tax refunds were processed within 24 hours. The taxpayer portal received a maximum of 72 lakh returns a day:
• New cooperatives that commence manufacturing till March 2024 as to get lower tax rate of 15%
• Basic customs duty on crude, glycerine is proposed to be reduced to 2.5%.
• Propose to increase import duty on silver bars to align it with gold, platinum
• Extend customs duty cut on imports of parts of mobile phones by 1 year
• To reduce customs duty on open cells of TV panels to 2.5%

Fiscal position:

• I reiterate my intention to bring the fiscal deficit below 4.5% of GDP by 2025-26: FM
• FM Sitharaman retains fiscal deficit target of 6.4 pc in the Revised Estimate for FY23; cuts it to 5.9% for FY24
• Gross market showing seen at Rs 15.43 lakh cr in FY 24
• Net market borrowing in FY24 seen at Rs 11.8 lakh crore
• FY23 net tax receipts revised estimate stands at Rs 20.9 lakh crore
• FY23 total expenditure revised estimate stands at Rs 41.9 lakh crore
• FY23 revised estimate of total receipts other than borrowing at Rs 24.3 lakh crore
• FY24 net tax receipts seen at Rs 23.3 lakh crore

Saving schemes:

• Maximum deposit limit for Senior Citizen Savings Scheme to be enhanced to Rs 30 lakh from Rs 15 lakh
• Monthly Income Scheme limit doubled to Rs 9 lakh and Rs 15 lakh for joint accounts
• One-time new saving scheme Mahila Samman Saving Certificate for women to be made available for 2 years up to 2025.

MSME:

• Revamped credit guarantee for MSMEs to take effect from Apr 1, 2023 with infusion of Rs 9,000 crore in corpus
• New credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs to reduce cost of credit by 1 percentage point

Banking:

• Govt moots amendments to Banking Regulation Act to improve governance in banks.

Skill training:

• The government will launch Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0
• To skill the youth for international opportunities, 30 Skill India International Centers will be set up across different States.

Clean Energy:

• Rs 35,000 crores priority capital for the energy transition
• Green credit program will be notified under the Environment Protection Act
• Battery storage to get viability gap funding.
• Govt to support setting up of battery energy storage of 4,000 MwH
• National Green Hydrogen mission with an outlay of Rs 19,700 crore will facilitate the transition of the economy to low carbon intensity, reduce dependence on fossil fuel imports and make the country assume technology and market leadership

Gems and Jewelry:

• To encourage the indigenous production of lab-grown diamonds, a research and development grant is to be provided to one of the IITs for five years
• Proposal to review customs duty of lab-grown diamonds to be included in Part-B of Budget document

Aviation:

•  50 additional airports, helipads, water aero drones, and advanced landing grounds will be revived to improve regional air connectivity:

Railways get a massive boost:

•  An outlay of Rs 2.4 lakh crore was provided for railways in FY24. It’s the highest-ever allocation for Railways and is nearly nine times over FY14 allocations.

Ease of Doing Business:

•  PAN is a common identifier for all digital systems of govt agencies
•  One-stop solution for reconciliation and updating identity maintained by various agencies to be established using Digi locker and Aadhaar as foundational identity
•  Central Processing Centre to be set up for faster response to companies filing forms under the Companies Act
• For business establishments required to have Permanent Account Number, the PAN will be used as a common identifier for all Digital Systems of specified government agencies.
•  More than 39,000 compliances have been reduced and over 3,400 legal provisions decriminalized to enhance the ease of doing business
• Finance Minister announces multiple measures to enhance business activity in GIFT City

Digital services

•  Scope of services in Digi Locker to be expanded
•  100 labs for developing applications to use 5G services to be set up in engineering institutions
•  Labs will cover smart classrooms, precision farming, and healthcare applications.
•  Phase 3 of E-courts projects to be launched with an outlay of Rs 7,000 crore
•  Leading industry players will partner to develop, and provide scalable options for health, agri, and other sectors

Urban Development:

•  Govt to spend Rs 10,000 crore per year for urban infra development fund
• Cities to be incentivized to improve creditworthiness for municipal bonds
•  Aim for 100% mechanical desludging of septic tanks and sewers in all cities and towns

Housing:

•  The outlay for PM Awaas Yojana enhanced by 66% to over Rs 79,000 crore
•  Capex hiked 33%
•  Capital Expenditure increased 33 percent to Rs 10 lakh crore, which would be 3.3% of GDP, says FM
• Capital investment outlay to be 3.3% of GDP in FY24
•  Effective capital expenditure of Centre at Rs 13.7 lakh in FY24

Interest-free loan to states to continue:

•  Centre to continue 50-year interest-free loan to state governments for one more year

Digital Library for Children, Adolescents Will Be Set Up:

• A National Digital library will be set up for children and adolescents
• National Book Trust, Children’s Book Trust to replenish non-curricular titles in regional languages, English to digital libraries.
•  States to be encouraged to set up physical libraries for them at panchayat and ward levels and provide infrastructure for accessing the National Digital Library resources

Education:

• Three centers of excellence for artificial intelligence to be set up in top educational institutions.
•  157 new nursing colleges will be established in colocation with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014.
•  Eklavaya Model Residential Schools to be set up in the next 3 years. The Centre will recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff for 740 schools serving 3.5 lakh tribal students.

Agriculture:

• An Agriculture Accelerator Fund will be set up to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs
•  Digital public infrastructure to be developed for the agriculture sector
• The agricultural credit target will be increased to Rs 20 lakh crores with a focus on animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries
• Over the next 3 years, one crore farmers will get assistance to adopt natural farming.
•  10,000 bio input resource centers will be set up
•  Fisheries: To launch a sub-scheme under PM Mastya Sampada Yojna with an outlay of Rs 6,000 crore to further enable the activities of fishermen
•  Indian Institute of Millet Research will be supported as a center of excellence
•  Have initiated computerization for 63,000 primary agricultural credit societies with an investment of Rs 2,516 crore, says FM.
•  In drought-prone central regions of Karnataka, central assistance of Rs 5,300 crore is to be given to the upper Badra project to provide sustainable micro-irrigation

Tribal Welfare:

•  Pradhan Mantri Primitive Vulnerable Tribal Group (PMPVTGS) mission is been launched to improve the socio-economic condition of PMPVTGS
•  To improve the social-economic condition of the Particularly Tribal Groups, the PMPBTG Development mission will be launched, to saturate PBTG habitations with basic facilities. Rs 15,000 cr to be made available to implement the scheme in the next 3 years

Tourism:

• The promotion of tourism will be taken up on mission mode with the active participation of states, the convergence of Govt programs & public-private partnerships.
• 50 tourist destinations will be selected through challenge mode to be developed as a whole package for domestic and international tourism
•  States will be encouraged to set up a ‘Unity Mall’ in the State capital or the most popular tourist destination in the state for the promotion and sale of ‘One District, One product’ and GI products and other handicraft
•  The country offers an immense attraction for domestic as well as foreign tourists. There is a large potential to be tapped into tourism. The sector holds huge opportunities for jobs and entrepreneurship for youth in particular.

PM Vishwa Karma Kaushal Samman:

• PM Vishwa Karma Kaushal Samman-package of assistance for traditional artisans and craftspeople has been conceptualized, will enable them to improve the quality, scale & reach of their products, integrating with the MSME value chain

 Free food scheme to continue till 2024:

• Continuing our commitment to food security, we’re implementing from January 1, 2023, a scheme to supply free food grain to all Antyodaya and priority households for one year under PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana
•  During the COVID pandemic, we ensured that nobody goes to bed hungry with a scheme to supply free food grains to over 80 crore persons for 28 months.
• Our vision for the Amrit Kaal includes a technology-driven and knowledge-based economy, with strong public finances and a robust financial sector. To achieve this ‘janbhagidari’ through ‘sabka saath, sabka prayaas’ is essential, FM said.
•  India’s rising global profile is because of several accomplishments – Aadhaar, Cowin, and UPI have contributed to improving India’s global profile. During the pandemic, the government ensured no one went to bed hungry, ” says Finance Minister
•  The efforts since 2014 have ensured all citizens, a better quality of life and a life of dignity. The per capita income has more than doubled to Rs 1.97 lakh. In these 9 years, the Indian economy has increased in size from being 10th to 5th largest in the world: Sitharaman
•  The economy has become a lot more formalized as reflected by the doubling of EPFO membership.