Budget 2022: Will India rebound after the pandemic?
The Union budget of 2022-23, presented by Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, is a hope for a lot of taxpayers and businesses after a massive decline in the economy during pandemic years. The budget presented on Tuesday morning lays the foundation of the necessary ecosystem for the maximum economic stature of the country i.e the middle class.
This is the shortest of the four budget speeches framed by FM Nirmala Sitharaman. It focuses on fast-tracking of economy, providing opportunities to businesses, and potentially generating 60 Lakh new jobs. The budget is commendably drafted with policies for benefitting various sections of society both personally and economically.
Though a lot more was expected for the reduction of tax slab, the Union minister focused more on SOPs of National Pension Schemes, start-ups, extended ECLGS schemes, and filling of revised ITR window to mention a few. After the announcement of the big-budget of Rs. 39.45 lakh crores nifty and Sensex had an immediate jump in value which had been on the low for past days. Ms. Sitharaman talked about investing more in infrastructure development to spur economic growth and recovery to create jobs.
With the presented budget, FM Sitharaman has also expected the economy to grow at a rate of 9.2%, which is the highest among all other economies. She also mentioned that India was entering the Amirit Kaal, the 25 years long vision to lead up to 100 years of independence. The government aims to attain a vision of promoting the digital economy, Fintech, Climate action, and technology-enabled development.
Righteously, the Modi government since 2014 has always strived to work for the poor and marginalized. Though the measures taken have shown their results over some time, but have proven to be effective and lasting. The union minister also put light on how the government schemes have been beneficial to all the marginalized groups, like providing cooking gas, housing facilities, clean toilets, electricity, and access to water. They are committed to strengthening the poor by providing resources so that they can tap for all opportunities.
With Sabka Prayas the government has strived to attain huge success in conducting the world’s biggest vaccination drive. The opposition rebukes the government for a fake tally of the number of people vaccinated, but the schematic ways of conducting door-to-door testing and vaccination service have made the Modi government likable to many people.
Our healthcare structure which had been put to the litmus test due to the unavailability of resources has been constantly evolving with the aim of better service and resource availability. The vision of Prime Minister Modi of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat has received an overwhelming response and hence there are a lot of schemes to provide Productivity linked incentives.
Foundations of budget
There have been four priorities laid by Union FM which is inclusive for all and undertakes many development and finance-related steps which are to rebound the economic conditions.
- PM Gati Shakti
- Inclusive development
- productivity advancement and enhancement, sunrise opportunities, a gateway for climate action and energy transition
- Financial investments
PM Gati Shakti
A transformative approach for sustainable development and financial growth. This approach is mainly driven by seven engines namely, roads, railways, waterways, ports, airports, mass transport, and logistic infrastructure. To support these engines’ energy transmission, bulk water & sewerage, IT communication, and Social infrastructure.
Empowered by clean energy and Sabka Prayas, the PM Gati Shakti is the effort of the central government, state government, and private sector collectively to create more entrepreneurial opportunities and jobs for the youth. PM Gati Shakti’s master plan is driven by economic transformations, logistic efficiency, and multi-modal connectivity. The projects that align with the seven engines of the master plan in the National Infrastructure Pipeline will be handled in the GatiShakti framework.
Before 2014, when the most corrupted Indian National Congress had command over the nation, the facilities and resource use was only limited to the Government itself. But with Bhartiya Janta Party, the vision of the country has changed drastically. The Road and transportation development has been commendable with continuous and extensive work to connect the country via expressways and highways.
The master plan for Expressways has been formulated in Budget 2022-23, which will facilitate faster movement of people and goods. The National Highways network will be expanded by 25,000 km. For railways, a multi-modal facility of logistics will be developed for Cargo Terminals. 400 hundred new generations Vande Bharat trains with better energy efficiency and passenger experience will be developed and manufactured in the next three years.
Inclusive Development
Agriculture
The Government focuses on chemical-free farming throughout the country. the procured wheat in 2021-22 and the estimated procurement of Paddy in 2021-22 cover 1208 metric tones of Wheat and paddy from 163 lakh farmers who will be benefited with 2.37 lakh crore direct payment of MSP into their accounts. For a long time now, there has been a huge import of Oilseeds to meet the requirement of the country, but as mentioned in the union budget, a new rationalized and the comprehensive scheme has been developed to increase the domestic production of oilseeds.
Inclusion of technology and Agriculture is the picture of new-age India, never before this had any government-supported farmer with digital and hi-tech services. ‘Kisan Drone’ will be promoted for crop assessment, land record, and spraying of insecticides and nutrients.
Education
The most adversely affected sector due to pandemics has been Education. With schools and other educational institutes on complete lockdown and particularly in rural areas and from schedule caste, scheduled tribes and other weaker sections have lost their formal education for 2 years now. The government understands the need of imparting supplementary teaching especially to those in government schools. For this purpose ‘One class-one Channel’ a resilient mode of education delivery of PM-eVIDYA will be expanded from just 12 channels to 200 channels. This will help the states to impart education in their regional language for classes 1-12.
The sudden change in the way of schooling was equally difficult to adapt for the teacher as for the students after the outbreak of COVID-19. Teachers who were unable to keep up with tech had to face difficulties in teaching and controlling the class. To overcome this high quality e-content will be developed for delivery via the internet, TV, mobile phones, and radio with the help of digital teachers.
A notch above the capabilities, the government progresses to create a digital university to provide access to world-class quality universal education to all students countrywide. The best public universities and institutions in the country will collaborate as a network. This will be made available in all Indian languages and ICT formats.
Har Ghar Nal se Jal
Water is the most basic need for every individual. With this year’s budget, an allocation of 60,000 crores has been made, while the scheme currently covers 8.7 crores of which 5.5 crore households were provided with clean water in the last two years. In 2022-23 it aims to cover about 3.7 crores more households.
The newest role out from the budget this year is the issuance of e-passports embedded with chip and futuristic technology that will enhance convince for the citizen in their cross border travels.
URBAN DEVELOPMENT
By the time India will hit a century of independence year nearly half of its population will be living in urban areas. This urban development is of critical importance and to nurture this kind of demographic dividend we need to nurture our two tiers and three-tier city this would require redeveloping our cities into sustainable centers with opportunities for all including women and youth.
TELECOM SECTOR
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Telecommunications is a sector of great opportunities with 5G technology in particular there are many standards to grow and offer job opportunities. The spectrum auction will be conducted in 2022 to facilitate mobile service within private telecom providers. The vision is to provide all villages and their residents with access to e-services communication facilities and resources as urban areas and their residents
ATMA NIRBHARTA IN DEFENCE
Since the government is very committed to the safeguard of its citizen it has tried to reduce the import and promote Atma nirbharta in the equipment of arm forces for this the 68% of the total budget capital has been embarked for the domestic industry in 2022.
Financing of investment
In the year 2021 private equity invested more than 5.5 lakh crore one of the largest start-ups and growth ecosystems and to regulate this and other frictions in the business an expert committee will be set up to examine and suggest proper measures.
The most crucial headline of the budget was the introduction of central bank digital currency which will give a very huge boost to the digital economy it was proposed to introduce a digital rupee using Blockchain and other technologies issued by the reserve bank of India starting 2022 to 2023.
Since virtual digital assets have been popularized among the youth of the country and there has been a phenomenal increase in the transaction of these assets the magnitude and frequency of these transactions have been surplus The union FM has proposed the taxation of virtual digital assets at the rate of 30%. And to capture and control the transaction details 1%TDS on payment made about the transfer of digital assets has been considered a gift of virtual digital assets is also considered to be taxed in the hands of the recipient.
Newly updated returns
The income tax department has established a new framework of reporting taxpayers transactions in the context taxpayers may realize that they have committed some mistake in calculating their income tax for payment The finance minister has proposed a new provision to file an updated return on payment for additional tax this updated the return should be filed within two years from the end of the relevant year
Considering the sensitivity of the situation of parents or guardians of differently-abled persons the government has taken measures to allow no tax policy for the parents whose children are differently-abled and also dependent on them for a lifetime.
Custom exemption and tariff simplification
After an extensive consultation that includes crowdsourcing, there have been more than 350 exemption entries to be proposed and rolled out gradually. These exemptions include certain agricultural produce chemicals medical devices fabrics and drugs and medicines for which sufficient domestic capacity exists to achieve the objective of make in India and Atma NirbharBharat removal of exemptions on items which can be manufactured in India are provided with consensual duties on raw material for manufacturing of intermediate products.
The Bottom Line
Every year the Government proposes schemes and measures in the form of a budget for the economic growth of the country. The budget for this year is like a process of painting the picture of futuristic India. If the proposed schemes are implemented with minimum glitches, there might be a huge difference in the economical conditions of the people of the country. India might rebound to become stronger financially with Sabka prayas. The common man is still affected by inflation and tax slabs, but with the budget, there are several windows of new opportunity opening.
This budget works in the favor of the poor and marginalized and also the middle-class socio group with varied reliefs and allowances imposed from past as well as the recent budget. India is a country of opinions and hence every individual will have varied thoughts for the presented budget. this may not seem beneficial in the short term but these are the foundations of new-age India and with the guidance of such capable leaders, we are rationally moving towards a better future.
Edited and published by Ashlyn Joy
