Highlights of the union budget 2022-23

New Delhi : The Union Budget seeks to complement macro-economic level growth with a focus on micro-economic level all inclusive welfare. The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the Union Budget 2022-23 in Parliament today.

 

The key highlights of the budget are as follows:

 

PART A

• India’s economic growth estimated at 9.2% to be the highest among all large economies.
• 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.
• Entering Amrit Kaal, the 25 year long lead up to India @100, 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.

 

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.

 

Accelerated Corporate Exit

• Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE) to be established for speedy winding-up of companies.

 

AVGC Promotion Task Force

• An animation, visual effects, gaming, and comic (AVGC) promotion task force to be set-up to realize the potential of this sector.

 

Telecom Sector

• Scheme for design-led manufacturing to be launched to build a strong ecosystem for 5G as part of the Production Linked Incentive Scheme.

 

Export Promotion

• Special Economic Zones Act to be replaced with a new legislation to enable States to become partners in ‘Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs’.

 

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:

o    CO₂ savings of 38 MMT annually,

o    Extra income to farmers and job opportunities to locals,

o    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.

 

 

Public Capital Investment:

• Public investment to continue to pump-prime private investment and demand in 2022-23.
• Outlay for capital expenditure stepped up sharply by 35.4% to Rs. 7.50 lakh crore in 2022-23 from Rs. 5.54 lakh crore in the current year.
• Outlay in 2022-23 to be 2.9% of GDP.
• ‘Effective Capital Expenditure’ of Central Government estimated at Rs. 10.68 lakh crore in 2022-23, which is about 4.1% of GDP.

 

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.

 

Mobilising Resources

• Data Centres and Energy Storage Systems to be given infrastructure status.
• Venture Capital and Private Equity invested more than Rs. 5.5 lakh crore last year facilitating one of the largest start-up and growth ecosystem. Measures to be taken to help scale up this investment.
• Blended funds to be promoted for sunrise sectors.
• Sovereign Green Bonds to be issued for mobilizing resources for green infrastructure.

 

Digital Rupee

• Introduction of Digital Rupee by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23.

 

Providing Greater Fiscal Space to States