Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented the Narendra Modi government’s last full budget before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Calling it the first budget in ‘Amrit Kaal’, the finance minister said the Indian economy is on a right track and heading towards a bright future. The budget is being keenly watched by all sections of the society, especially the middle class which has a lot of expectations from it.
Here we bring you the LIVE twitter analysis of the Union Budget 2023
12:30 pm: Two big takeaways:
Capex increase is very significant; will help the cause of investment
Personal tax changes are also very significant; will help the cause of consumption
12:26 pm: Standard deduction under new tax regime
Highest tax rate 42.7%. Propose to reduce highest surcharge rate from 37% to 25% under new tax regime. Reduction of maximum rate to 39%
Limit of 3 lakh on leave encashment increased to 25 lakh
12: 15 pm: Now for direct taxes.
Next generation common IT form to be rolled out
MSMEs and professionals (some) — if their cash receipts is no more than 5% presumptive tax limits increased to ₹3 crore (turnover) and ₹75 lakh (income) respectively
12:11 pm: Concessional duties on some mobile components will continue for a year
TV components — customs duties reduced
Clearly, emphasis on boosting local electronics manufacturing
Amendments in banking regulation act/banking companies act/RBI act to protect customers.
12:01 pm: Priority 7: financial sector
Credit guarantee for MSMEs — 9000 crore more infused in corpus which will allow additional credit of 2 lakh crore
National financial information registry to be set up — facilitate credit flow and boost availability of information. New law for this?
11:58 am: Priority 6: the young
Next phase of the skill development programme.
New skill India centers
New skill India digital platform which will link students with entrepreneurship opportunities and jobs
New apprenticeship scheme (stipends through DBT). No specifics on money
11:55 am: Support for old polluting vehicles (FM says political in what is perhaps a Freudian slip) of central govt vehicles and state govt vehicles
11:50 am: Lab-grown diamonds: R&D grant to an IIT for five years.
11:47 am: 100 labs to be set up to develop 5G solutions — smart class rooms, precision farming, intelligent transport etc
11:45 am: Digilocker for companies/MSMEs/trusts etc, much like the one there is for individuals
11:43 am: Phase 3 of the e-courts project to be launched; 7000 crore for this. Another effort to streamline the judicial process and reduce pendency
11:42 am: Unified filing process for companies on a common portal and can be shared based on the filer’s instructions. Will need to understand how this works but a good move on paper.
11:40 am: Data governance policy — will provide access to anonymized data; simplified KYC policy; one-stop solution to update address and identity (welcome step as anyone who has tried to get things changed can vouch)
11:36 am: Under Priority 3: focus on cities too. Cities to be incentivized to improve finances so that they can issue Munibonds
11:34 am: Railways gets 2.4 lakh crore as capital exp out of this; 50 additional airports etc will be improved for enhancing connectivity.
11:33 am: Priority 3: Infrastructure and Investment. Capital investment outlay being increased by 33% to 10 lakh crore — 3.3% of GDP (three times 2019-20 outlay). Big move. Productive spending. Will have significant cascading effect.
11: 27 am: Priority 2: reaching the last mile. A new mission for tribals is being launched to improve the lot of primitive and vulnerable groups. Move is in keeping with the BJP’s expanding focus on tribal communities — which it sees as the next big electoral frontier.
11:26 am: Under education, the emphasis will be on teacher training, creating a national digital library for children.
11:24 am: Still under inclusivity, the FM is now listing the health and education provisions in the budget. They include creating 157 new nursing colleges; boosting collaborative research by ICMR; boosting pharma research; facilitating manufacture of medical equipment…
11:22 am: As expected, there’s enough for agriculture in this budget — not surprising in a pre-poll year. To continue, other measures include strengthening co-operatives (which also means setting up new ones).
11: 21 am: Seven priorities of UB2022-23 according to FM. One, inclusivity. Significant under these are an Agriculture Accelerator Fund; making India a global hub for millets (also this week’s Brunch cover story); agricultural credit target increased to 20 lakh crore ….
11:14 am: Transformative opportunities: economically empowering women — transforming SHGs into large producer organisations; package for handicraft makers to improve quality/scale (will help SC/STs and OBCs, especially); tourism; green growth (investments and jobs)
11:07 am: Indian economy has gone from 9th largest to 5th largest in the world in the past nine years; economy has become more formalised: FM
