FM Sitharaman presents 'Amrit Kaal' Budget with 7 priorities; Read full announcement here

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget on Wednesday, February 1. The budget speech was one hour and 22 minutes long. Sitharaman, presenting her fifth budget, said this is an Amrit Kaal budget which will helpbuild the foundation laid in the previous budget and the blueprint drawn for India@100. This budget envisions a prosperous and inclusive India in which the fruits of development will reach all the sections of the country, especially youth, women, farmers, OBCs, ST and SC, Sitharaman said.  

'Saptarishi': Seven priorities of Budget

Further, FM highlighted that this Budget adopts seven priorities in the Fiscal year 2023-24. These priorities complement each other and act as 'Saptarishi' guiding us through the Amrit Kaal

• Inclusive development
• Reaching the last mile
• Infrastructure and investment
• Unleashing the potential 
• Green growth 
• Youth power
• Financial Sector 

#BudgetWithArnab | Finance Minister #NirmalaSitharaman lists 7 priorities of government's #AmritKaalBudget pic.twitter.com/Zuo8j72BKq

— Republic (@republic)

FM on India's growth & Economic agenda

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the world has recognised the Indian economy as the bright star and our current year's economic growth has been estimated at 7% which is the highest among any other major economy in spite of the slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war. She stated that the Indian economy is on the right track, heading to a bright future. Our focus on reforms and sound policies resulting in Jan Bhagidari helped us in trying times, our rising global profile is due to several accomplishments".

"The per capita has doubled by more than Rs 1.97 lakh In these 9 years, the Indian economy has increased in size from the 10th to be 5th largest in the world. We have made significant progress in many SDGs, the economy has become a lot more formalized, and efficient implementation of schemes has brought about inclusive development", she added. The economic agenda for achieving the vision focuses on:-

• Facilitating opportunities for citizens
• Providing strong impetus to growth and job creation
• Strengthening macroeconomic stability

Women Empowerment

While speaking on women's empowerment, FM stated that the economic empowerment of women is one opportunity which can be transformative in achieving our vision by focusing on the above areas. "Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana has achieved remarkable success by mobilizing rural women into 81 lakh Self Help Groups, we will form Large Producer Enterprises to help these SHGs reach the next stage of economic empowerment"

'Vishwa Karma Kaushal Samman' package

FM announced the 'PM Vishwa Karma Kaushal Samman' in which for the first time package of assistance for traditional artisans and craftspeople has been conceptualized, which will enable them to improve the quality, scale, and reach of their products, integrating with the MSME value chain

Tourism 

Giving a big push to the tourism sector, the Finance Minister said that the country offers immense attractions for domestic as well as foreign tourists. "There is a large potential to be tapped into tourism and it holds huge opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship, especially for youths.  Promotion of tourism will be taken up on mission mode with the active participation of states, the convergence of government programmes and public-private partnership".

Agriculture sector

Emphasising the Agriculture sector, FM Sitharaman added that the government is going to propose the 'Agriculture Accelerator Fund' to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs. She further said that the agricultural credit target will be increased to Rs 20 lakh crores with a focus on animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries. "India is the largest producer and second largest exporter of Shree Anna, to make India a global hub for Shree Anna, Indian Institute of Millet Research Hyderabad will be supported as a Centre of Excellence for sharing best practices at the international level"

She further said that the Digital Public Infrastructure for Agriculture to be built as open source, open standard, interoperable public good Will enable inclusive farmer-centric solutions and help improve access to farm inputs, market intel, and support for the Agri industry, and startups.

"63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies are being computerized with an investment of Rs. 2,516 crores; model bylaws were formulated for PACS, the national database is being prepared, and with this, massive decentralized storage capacity is to be set up. This will help farmers store their produce and realize better prices for their produce, Government will facilitate the setting up of a larger number of coop societies, primary fishery societies and dairy coop societies in uncovered villages in the next 5 years".

National digital library 

The Finance Minister announced that a National Digital Library for children and adolescents will be set up for facilitating the availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres and levels and device-agnostic accessibility. The States will be encouraged to set up physical libraries for them at panchayat and ward levels and provide infrastructure for accessing the National Digital Library resource.

"National Child Trust, Children's Book Trust and other sources are to be encouraged to provide and replenish non-curricular titles in regional languages and English, to these libraries; collaboration with NGOs working in literacy is also to be done. Teachers' training to be reenvisioned through innovative pedagogy, continuous professional development and ICT implementation; District Institutes of Education and Training to be developed as vibrant institutes of excellence".

For Tribal community

FM made a key announcement for the Tribal groups in a bid to improve the social-economic condition, 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 next 3 years"

Big boost to Railway Sector & Connectivity

Finance Minister Sitharaman announced a capital outlay of 2.40 lakh crore to the Railway sector of the country which is notably the highest-ever outlay for the sector since the 2013-2014 Budget. The allotment of 2.40 lakh crore to the Railway sector will come as a boost to the largest employer in the country, something that they have requested time and again. The multi-modal connection network comprising rail and road networks is seeing an exceptional boost in the last few years. The Indian Railways (IR), with over 68,031 route kms, is the fourth largest network in the world under single management. 

In addition, 50 additional airports, helipads, water aero drones, and advanced landing grounds will be revived to improve regional air connectivity, said FM Nirmala Sitharaman. Rs 35,000 crores priority capital for the energy transition, she said. Battery storage to get viability gap funding.

The outlay for Capex increased

The Finance Minister informed that the government has enhanced capital expenditure (capex) outlay by 33% to Rs 10 lakh crore which would be 3.3% of GDP. The amount is almost 3 times the outlay that was made by the government in 2020.

Ease of doing business

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that 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, said FM Nirmala Sitharaman.   Leading industry players will partner in conducting inter-disciplinary research, and develop cutting-edge applications and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health and sustainable cities.

3 Centres of Excellence for AI will be set up in top educational institutions

In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that on realising the vision of Make Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India and Make AI work for India, three Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence will be set up in top educational institutions.

Fiscal deficit estimated to be 5.9% of GDP: FM

FM Sitharaman informed that the revised fiscal deficit is at 6.4 per cent of GDP. "FY-2024 fiscal deficit target at 5.9 per cent of GDP. I reiterate my intention to bring the fiscal deficit below 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2025-26", said FM.  

FM has also made announcements that a 50-year interest-free loan to State governments extended for one more year. Old vehicles replacement policy which will scrap all the old government vehicles and old state ambulances. To unleash Innovation and research by Startups and Academia, a National Data Governance Policy will be brought out. This will enable access to anonymized data.

Income Tax: Relief for common people

In the 2023 Amrit Kaal Budget, the government has given the biggest relief to the common man as an Income tax rebate has been extended on income up to Rs 7 lakhs in the new tax regime. FM said, 'I introduced in 2020, the new personal income tax regime with 6 income slabs, starting from Rs 2.5 Lakhs. I propose to change the tax structure in this regime by reducing the number of slabs to 5 and increasing the tax exemption limit to Rs 3 Lakhs:
While speaking on the Personal Income Tax, the FM added that the new tax rates are-

• 0 to Rs 3 lakhs - nil
• Rs 3 to 6 lakhs - 5%
• Rs 6 to 9 Lakhs - 10%
• Rs 9 to 12 Lakhs - 15%
• Rs 12 to 15 Lakhs - 20% 
•  above 15 Lakhs - 30%