Hits & Misses

Mumbai: Reliance Jio on Saturday launched its True 5G services in Haridwar from Har Ki Pauri, taking the total number of Jio True 5G cities to 226 across the country. The telecom company said starting today, Jio users in Haridwar would be invited to the Jio Welcome Offer to experience unlimited data at up to 1 Gbps+ speeds, at no additional cost. Haridwar becomes the second city in the state after the capital city Dehradun to get Jio True 5G services, according to a company statement. —ANI

49th Gst Council Meet To Be Held On February 18

Last year was filled with unpredictable and tumultuous global events whose adverse effects percolated right down to the individual level. The Union Budget of 2023-24 was projected to include a relief for the middle and lower income class as well as push for infrastructure and job growth. The Budget has delivered on most of these expectations. The current government has done a splendid job of ticking all checkboxes by providing benefits to almost everyone be it the rural poor, youth, an average middle class man, senior citizens, corporates as well as startups. Let us look at some of the hits and misses of this budget.

HITS

New Delhi: The 49th meeting of the GST Council is scheduled to be held in New Delhi on February 18, 2023, according to a tweet posted by the council. The GST Council meeting will be chaired by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The 49th GST Council meeting is likely to take up issues relating to taxation on ‘pan masala’ and ‘gutka’ companies, setting up of appellate tribunals, and GST levy on online gaming, casino, and horse racing. —ANI

IND MOBILE EXPORTS

SET TO ZOOM TO RECORD HIGH z Benefits for the common man: The most awaited part of the budget -Direct Taxes- did not disappoint. The middle class happily welcomed the proposal of hiking rebate under section 87A from ` 5 lakh to `7 lakh in the new tax regime. Under the new tax slabs, individuals enjoy the benefits of lower taxes. For example, an individual with an annual income of `9 lakh will have to pay only `45,000 as opposed to ` 60,000 currently. Even the ultra rich benefit from the proposal to reduce the highest surcharge rate from 37% to 25%. z Saving schemes: Deposit limit for senior citizens’ savings scheme doubled from `15 lakh currently to ` 30 lakh. One type saving scheme for women introduced for deposit upto `2 lakh at 7.5% interest rate. z Focus on rural sector: There was a major focus on rural development in this budget as the Union Finance Minister announced that the agricultural credit target will be increased to ` 20 lakh crore with a focus on animal husbandry, dairy, and fisheries. Allocation for PM Awas Yojna increased by a whopping 66% to over `79,000 crore which will enable the required infrastructure push as well as job creation. z MSME support: While it was expected that the credit guarantee schemes brought in during the pandemic will be phased out, a revamp of the schemes has been proposed in this budget. With an investment of `9000 crore, a revised credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs would go into effect on April 1, 2023. This will allow for an additional `2 lakh crore in collateral-free credit guarantees, which will allow for a 1% reduction in the cost of borrowing. For MSMEs that are still recuperating from the effects of the epidemic, this is wonderful news. z For enhancing ease of doing business, more than 39,000 compliances have been reduced, over 3,400 legal provisions decriminalized. Green Growth was one of the seven focus areas of the Budget `35,000 crore capital investment was provided towards energy transition and net zero objective. z No bad news is good news: No change in long term capital tax gain which was expected to increase.

MISSES tions involving high-value insurance policies announced in this budget will also impact large ticket policy sales. The exemption benefit has been a major factor in the insurance industry’s growth in India. Huge chunks of policies are still sold during the tax planning season of January to March. z Boost for PLI scheme missing: No new sectors were introduced as part of production linked incentives to boost manufacturing which was widely anticipated. Let us now look into the details of announcements under broad categories.

Personal Income Tax

z Exemption Rebate increased to `7 lakh from `5 Lakh i.e. there is no tax on income up to `7 Lakh z Individuals with income of `15.5 lakh and above are eligible for standard deduction of `52,500 in the new tax regime as opposed to `50,000 in the old regime. z Currently, the highest rate is 42.74% income tax under the new regime. The Budget has proposed to reduce the highest surcharge from 37% to 25% in the new tax regime, thereby reducing the rate to maximum of 39%. z Limit on tax exemption for leave encashment is increased from 3,00,000 to 25,00,000

OTHER MAJOR CHANGES

Saving Schemes

z Senior Citizen Savings

Scheme: Maximum investment limit increased from `15 lakh to `30 lakh.

`z Mahila Samman Bachat Patra: One-time small savings scheme announced for women which accepts a maximum `2 lakh deposit for two-year period with fixed interest of 7.5%.

Infrastructure

z The capital account ex penditure is estimated to be ` 10 lakh crore forming 3.3% of GDP, an increase of 33% YoY z The outlay for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana is being increased by 66% to over `79,000 crore. z 50 additional airports, heliports, water aerodromes, and advanced landing zones are proposed to be revitalized. z 100 critical transport infrastructure projects for steel, ports, fertilizer, coal, foodgrain sectors have been identified with an investment of `75,000 crore (`15,000 crore from private sources) z Railway outlay budgeted at `2.40 Lakh Crore which is the highest ever. It is over 9x times that of FY14.

EDUCATION z Eklavaya Model Residential Schools: In the next three years, the Centre will recruit 38,800 teachers and support staff for 740 schools serving 3.5 lakh tribal students

CLEAN ENERGY & ELECTRIC VEHICLES

This budget provides for `35,000 crore capital investment towards energy transition and net zero objective and energy security. `19,700 crore was allocated to the National Hydrogen Mission. The objective is to reach hydrogen production capacity of 5 metric million tonnes by 2030.

Healthcare And Other Welfare Schemes

z From Jan. 1, 2023, PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana is being implemented to supply free food grain to all Antyodaya and priority households for one year.

z Health spending has been given an allocation of ` 88,956 crores, an increase of 2.7% or ` 2,350 crores from FY23’s allocation of ` 86,606 crores.

z The budget allocates `7,200 crores to the Ayushman Bharat– Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY), an increase of `743 crores or 11.5% from FY23 when it received `6,457 crores.

z The Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) has received `11,600 crores in funding, an increase of `1,366 crores or 13.4% from the `10,234 crores provided in FY23.

New Delhi: India has been going big on electronic manufacturing for the last few years and in December 2022, Apple became the first company from the country to export smartphones worth USD 1 billion in a month. According to a recent article, December was the record month for the industry with mobile phone exports of over Rs10,000 crore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision for 2023 is to have mobile phone exports with the segment featuring in the top 10 export category from India, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said. —ANI

‘BUDGET ALLOCATION TO ENHANCE

JUDICIAL EFFICIENCY’ z Huge infrastructure push: The expected capital expenditure will be `10 lakh crore, up 33% year over year. Effective government capital expenditures will total `13.7 lakh crore, or 4.5% of GDP, which is favorable for the capital goods and infrastructure sector. z Fiscal deficit target maintained: Government has maintained prudence and set the deficit target for the current z No change in deductions: A few expectations which were missed in the Budget were increase in Standard Deductions by salaried individuals and increase in deduction level under 80C. As the government is pushing to make the New Tax Regime as the default regime, the old tax regime did not see any significant upgrades. z Big blow for insurance companies: This is a big negative for insurance companies as the incentive of getting deductions on insurance premiums will no longer look attractive. Insurance policies are often bought for tax planning which will reduce in future. Plus curbs on exemp-

FINANCE MINISTER SAYS...

The New Tax Regime is now the default Tax Regime. However, citizens can continue to use the old one too. The Proposed Slab is as below:

‘Budget’s main focus is growth; Mum should be liking proposals’

Mumbai (PTI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said growth is the main focus of the budget for FY24 presented by her recently.

New Delhi: Proposed allocation of Rs7,000 crore in the 2023-24 budget for phase three of the eCourts Project will enhance judicial institutions and efficiency while ensuring courts reach every citizen, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said Saturday. Addressing the 73rd anniversary of establishment of the Supreme Court, he said that during the COVID-19 pandemic period, the top court adopted video conferencing of court proceedings to reach out to people. —PTI

The budget proposals establish both fiscal consolidation and growth, especially inclusive growth, Sitharaman said during her maiden interaction with stakeholders outside the national capital since presenting the budget on February 1.

“Growth is the main focus. We want to sustain that recovery, sustain that growth,” Sitharaman, accompanied by the top ministry officials at the outreach event, said. She gave credit for ensuring growth to the people of the country, who absorbed the relief and policy measures introduced by the government since

We want to sustain that recovery, sustain that growth. Mumbai should be liking proposals.

—Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Finance Minister the onset of the pandemic to make India the secondfastest growing economy.

The finance minister said it was the “express desire” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to continue with the elevated public capital expenditure, due to which she has proposed a higher outlay of Rs10 lakh crore under the head. She also thanked the budget-making team for making it possible to devote such a high quantum of resources for the task amid the myriad challenges like the need for fiscal consolidation. “Mumbai should be liking it (the proposals),” Sitharaman said. z Basic customs duty rates to be reduced from 21% to 13% z Taxes on cigarettes hiked by 16% z Basic import duty on compounded rubber increased to 25% from 10%. z Customs duty on kitchen electric chimney increased to 15% from 7.5% z The Budget proposes to increase the limit for presumptive taxation for MSMEs and certain professionals to `3 crore and `75 lakh, respectively. z New cooperatives that commence manufacturing activity till March 2024 to attract lower tax rate of 15%

Next e-auction of FCI wheat under OMSS to be held on Feb 15: Govt

New Delhi (PTI): The next e-auction for the sale of FCI wheat to bulk consumers like flour millers under the Open Market Sale Scheme (OMSS) will be held on February 15, the Food Ministry said on Saturday.

State-run Food Corporation of India (FCI) has been mandated to sell 25 lakh tonnes of wheat from buffer stock to bulk consumers under the OMSS to contain rising prices of wheat and wheat products in country.

The first sale of wheat through e-auction was held on February 1-2. About 9.2 lakh tonnes of wheat was sold from FCI depots in 23 states. The plan was to hold a weekly e-auction every Wednesday. In a statement, the Food Ministry said, “The second sale of wheat through e-auction will be held throughout country on February 15.” z 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. z 100 labs for developing apps using 5G services will be set up in Engineering institutions. Labs will cover, among other things, applications like Smart Classrooms, Precision Farming, Intelligent Transports Systems, and Healthcare in order to realize the new range of options, business models, and job potential. z In top educational institutions, 3 centers of excellence for AI will be established with the objectives of “Making AI in India” and “Making AI Work For India.” z Alongside the 157 medical colleges that have already been operating since 2014, 157 additional nursing colleges will open.

In Conclusion

The current government has chosen an inclusive approach while presenting its last Union Budget before the general elections. The focus of the budget was on stabilising macroeconomic factors and providing a strong impetus to growth and job creation. With a strong emphasis on infrastructure, health, agriculture, and green initiatives, the budget has made bold and forward-looking promises. If executed well, India is unquestionably set up for significant growth and stability, with benefits for all citizens.

Indian govt focuses on empowering farmers

New Delhi (ANI): The Indian government launched Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) in 2016 to address the issue of farmers’ inability to get crop insurance due to lack of money, high premium rates, and capping. The scheme has completed six years of its implementation.

The PMFBY is aimed at giving farmers a simple and affordable crop insurance option to ensure comprehensive risk coverage for crops against all natural risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest and provide adequate claim amounts.

The demand-driven scheme is available to all.

In this scheme, it has become easier for the farmer to report crop loss within 72 hours of any incident through Fasal Bima App, Citizens Service Centre, or nearest agriculture officer.

During this period, claims of more than Rs1,24,223 crore have been paid to more than 11.73 crore farmer applicants. Farmers had paid a premium of about Rs 25,185 crore. That is, the farmers have received almost five times the premium paid (received Rs493 on payment of Rs100 premium) as claims.

The most important change had been that instead of 50%, the Centre now gives a 90% share in the subsidy for crop insurance to farmers of northeastern states.

What is a day? Your life in miniature – as you spend your day so you will spend your life!

—Dr Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, First India