India’s Vision Exhibited In The Union Budget 2022-23

During her long speech, Finance Minister Niramala Sitaraman threw light on Agriculture, MSMEs, Households and various key sectors that will help people directly.

Digital Currency - Introduction of a central bank digital currency will give a big boost to the digital economy. It is therefore proposed to introduce digital rupee using blockchain and other technologies to be issued by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23.

Agriculture- In agriculture, the procurement of wheat and rabi crops in 2021-22 and estimated procurement of Paddy and Kharif in 2021-22 will cover 1208 lakh metric tons of wheat and Paddy from 163 lakh farmers and 2.37 lakh crore will be directly payment will be the direct payment of MSP value to their accounts.

Chemical free natural farming will be promoted throughout the country with a focus on farmers' lands in five km wide corridors along the river Ganga at the first stage. 2023 has been announced as the international year of millets, so support will be provided for post-harvest value addition enhancing domestic consumption and for branding Millet products nationally and internationally.

To reduce our dependence on import of oilseeds, a rationalized and comprehensive scheme to increase domestic production of oil seeds will be implemented. A scheme in PPP mode will be launched to facilitate the digital and high-tech services to farmers. Startups in agriculture will be funded by NABARD. Use of Kisan drones will be promoted for crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients.

A comprehensive package with the help of state governments for farmers to grow suitable varieties of fruits and vegetables and get appropriate production.

Irrigation - Implementation of the Ken-Betwa link project at an estimated cost of 44,605 crores will be taken up. This is aimed at providing irrigation benefits to 9 Lakh hectare of farmers’ lands, drinking water supply to 62 lakh people, 103 MW of hydro, 27 MW of solar power. Allocations of 4300 crores of rupees in the 2021-22 and 1400 crores of rupees in 2022-23 have been allocated for this project.Draft for 5 river links namely Damanganga Pinjal, Par Tapi Narmada, Godavari Krishna, Krishna Pennar, Pennar-Kaveri have been finalized.

MSMEs- Udyam, E-Shram, NCS and Aseem portals will be interlinked. Their scope will be widened. They will now perform G to C, B to B and B to C services.  Emergency credit line guarantee scheme has provided the much-needed additional credit to more than 130 Lakh MSMEs. Considering aspects of pandemic, the ECG, ECLGS will be extended up to March 2023 and its guarantee cover will be expanded by 50,000 crores of rupees to total cover of 5 lakh crores. With the additional amount being earmarked exclusively for the hospitality and related sectors, Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) scheme will be revamped with required infusion of funds. This will facilitate additional credit of 2 lakh crores for micro and small enterprises and expand employment opportunities. Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance (RAMP) program with an outlay of 6000 crore over five years will be rolled out. This will help the MSME sector become more resilient, competitive and efficient.

Education- Digital Ecosystem for Skilling and livelihood (DESH), E-portal will be launched. This empowers citizens to skill, reskill and upskill through online training. It also provides API based trusted skill credentials, payment and discovery layers to find the relevant jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Startups will be promoted to facilitate drone shakti through varied applications and for drone as a service. Considering the closure of schools, one class one TV channel program of PM E- Vidya will be expanded from 12- 200 TV channels. This will be enabled in regional languages from class 1-12. A digital university will also be established with ICT expertise.

Health System- An open platform for the national digital health ecosystem will be rolled out, it will consist of digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities. To help people suffering with mental problems, a national tele mental health program will be launched. It will include a network of 23 tele mental health centers of excellence and IIIT Bangalore will provide technical support.

For Women and child development, the government has announced 3 schemes, namely - Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0. Saksham Anganwadis are new age anganwadis that have better infrastructure and audio-visual aids. 2 lakh anganwadis will be upgraded under the scheme.

Water -Current coverage of Har Ghar Nal Se Jal scheme is 8.7 crores and 5.5 crores households were provided tap water in the last two years. Allocation of 60,000 crores of rupees has been made with an aim to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23.

House- in 2022-23, 80 lakh houses will be completed for the identified eligible beneficiaries of the PM Awas Yojna in both rural and urban and 48000 crore is allocated for this purpose. The central government will work with state governments for reduction of time required for all land and construction related approvals.

Startup - Startups established before 31/03/2022 had been provided a tax incentive for 3 consecutive years out of the 10 years from incorporation. Now, it has been extended by a year, up to 31/03/2023 for providing such tax incentives.

Electronics- Customs duty rates have been calibrated to provide a greater rate structure to facilitate domestic manufacturing of wearable devices. Duty concessions are being given to parts of the transformer of mobile phone chargers and camera lens of mobile camera module and certain other such items.

Gems and jewelry - To give a boost to the gems and jewelry sector, customs duty on cut and polished diamonds and gemstones is being reduced to 5%. Simply sorn diamond would attract nil customs duty to facilitate export of jewelry through E- commerce as simplified regulatory framework shall be implemented by June this year. To disincentivize import of undervalued imitation jewelry, the customs duty on imitation jewelry is being prescribed in a manner that a duty of at least ?400 per kilogram is paid on its import.

Chemicals- Custom duty on certain critical chemicals namely methanol, acetic acid and heavy feedstocks for petroleum refining are being reduced while duty is being raised on sodium cyanide for which adequate capacity in the domestic arena exists.

Changes in Duties- Duty on umbrellas is being raised to 20%, exemption to parts of umbrellas is being withdrawn, exemption is also being rationalized on implements and tools for the agricultural sector which are manufactured in India. Customs duty exemption given to steal scrap last year is being extended for another year to provide relief to MSME secondary steel producers.

Anti-dumping duty on stainless steel and coated steel flat products, bars of alloy steel and high-speed steel are being revoked in larger public interest considering prevailing high prices of metals.

To incentivize exports, exemptions are being provided on items such as embellishment trimmings, fasteners, buttons, zippers etc.

Blending of fuel- Unblended fuel shall attract an additional differential excise duty of rupees two per liter from the first day of October 2022.