Budget 2023: Tax On Cigarettes Hiked By 16%, Companies’ Share Prices Fall; Substantial changes made in personal income tax in Budget

The Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2023-24 in Parliament today. The highlights of the Budget are as follows:

PART A

• Per capita income has more than doubled to ₹1.97 lakh in around nine years.
• Indian economy has increased in size from being 10th to 5th largest in the world in the past nine years.
• EPFO membership has more than doubled to 27 crore.
• 7,400 crore digital payments of ₹126 lakh crore has taken place through UPI in 2022.
• 11.7 crore household toilets constructed under Swachh Bharat Mission.
• 9.6 crore LPG connections provided under Ujjwala.
• 220 crore covid vaccination of 102 crore persons.
• 47.8 crore PM Jan Dhan bank accounts.
• Insurance cover for 44.6 crore persons under PM Suraksha Bima and PM Jeevan Jyoti Yojana.
• Cash transfer of ₹2.2 lakh crore to over 11.4 crore farmers under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi.
• Seven priorities of the budget ‘Saptarishi’ are inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector.

• Atmanirbhar Clean Plant Program with an outlay of ₹2200 crore to be launched to boost availability of disease-free, quality planting material for high value horticultural crops.
• 157 new nursing colleges to be established in co-location with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014.

· Centre to recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff for the 740 Eklavya Model Residential Schools, serving 3.5 lakh tribal students over the next three years.

· Outlay for PM Awas Yojana is being enhanced by 66% to over Rs. 79,000 crore.

· Capital outlay of Rs. 2.40 lakh crore has been provided for the Railways, which is the highest ever outlay and about nine times the outlay made in 2013-14.

· Urban Infrastructure Development Fund (UIDF) will be established through use of priority Sector Lending shortfall, which will be managed by the national Housing Bank, and will be used by public agencies to create urban infrastructure in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities.

• Entity DigiLocker to be setup for use by MSMEs, large business and charitable trusts to store and share documents online securely.
• 100 labs to be setup for 5G services based application development to realize a new range of opportunities, business models, and employment potential. 

· 500 new ‘waste to wealth’ plants under GOBARdhan (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) scheme to be established for promoting circular economy at total investment of Rs 10,000 crore. 5 per cent compressed biogas mandate to be introduced for all organizations marketing natural and bio gas.

· Centre to facilitate one crore farmers to adopt natural farming over the next three years. For this, 10,000 Bio-Input Resource Centres to be set-up, creating a national-level distributed micro-fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing network.

· Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0, to be launched to skill lakhs of youth within the next three years covering new age courses for Industry 4.0 like coding, AI, robotics, mechatronics, IOT, 3D printing, drones, and soft skills.

· 30 Skill India International Centres to be set up across different States to skill youth for international opportunities.

· Revamped credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs to take effect from 1st April 2023 through infusion of Rs 9,000 crore in the corpus. This scheme would enable additional collateral-free guaranteed credit of Rs 2 lakh crore and also reduce the cost of the credit by about 1 per cent.

· Central Processing Centre to be setup for faster response to companies through centralized handling of various forms filed with field offices under the Companies Act.

· The maximum deposit limit for Senior Citizen Savings Scheme to be enhanced from Rs 15 lakh to Rs 30 lakh.

· Targeted Fiscal Deficit to be below 4.5% by 2025-26.

• Agriculture Accelerator Fund to be set-up to encourage agri-startups by young entrepreneurs in rural areas.
• To make India a global hub for ‘Shree Anna’, the Indian Institute of Millet Research, Hyderabad will be supported as the Centre of Excellence for sharing best practices, research and technologies at the international level.
• ₹20 lakh crore agricultural credit targeted at animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries
• A new sub-scheme of PM Matsya Sampada Yojana with targeted investment of ₹6,000 crore to be launched to further enable activities of fishermen, fish vendors, and micro & small enterprises, improve value chain efficiencies, and expand the market.
• Digital public infrastructure for agriculture to be built as an open source, open standard and inter operable public good to enable inclusive farmer centric solutions and support for growth of agri-tech industry and start-ups.
• Computerisation of 63,000 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) with an investment of ₹2,516 crore initiated.
• Massive decentralised storage capacity to be set up to help farmers store their produce and realize remunerative prices through sale at appropriate times.
• Sickle Cell Anaemia elimination mission to be launched.
• Joint public and Private Medical research to be encouraged via select ICMR labs for encouraging collaborative research and innovation.
• New Programme to promote research in Pharmaceuticals to be launched.

· Rs. 10 lakh crore capital investment, a steep increase of 33% for third year in a row, to enhance growth potential and job creation, crowd-in private investments, and provide a cushion against global headwinds.

· Aspirational Blocks Programme covering 500 blocks launched for saturation of essential government services across multiple domains such as health, nutrition, education, agriculture, water resources, financial inclusion, skill development, and basic infrastructure.

· Rs. 15,000 crore for implementation of Pradhan Mantri PVTG Development Mission over the next three years under the Development Action Plan for the Scheduled Tribes.

· Investment of Rs. 75,000 crore, including Rs. 15,000 crore from private sources, for one hundred critical transport infrastructure projects, for last and first mile connectivity for ports, coal, steel, fertilizer, and food grains sectors.

· New Infrastructure Finance Secretariat established to enhance opportunities for private investment in infrastructure.

· District Institutes of Education and Training to be developed as vibrant institutes of excellence for Teachers’ Training.

· A National Digital Library for Children and Adolescents to be set-up for facilitating availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres and levels, and device agnostic accessibility.

· Rs. 5,300 crore to be given as central assistance to Upper Bhadra Project to provide sustainable micro irrigation and filling up of surface tanks for drinking water.

· ‘Bharat Shared Repository of Inscriptions’ to be set up in a digital epigraphy museum, with digitization of one lakh ancient inscriptions in the first stage.

· ‘Effective Capital Expenditure’ of Centre to be Rs. 13.7 lakh crore.

· Continuation of 50-year interest free loan to state governments for one more year to spur investment in infrastructure and to incentivize them for complementary policy actions.

· Encouragement to states and cities to undertake urban planning reforms and actions to transform our cities into ‘sustainable cities of tomorrow’.

· Transition from manhole to machine-hole mode by enabling all cities and towns to undertake 100 percent mechanical desludging of septic tanks and sewers.