Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget for 2022-23 on Tuesday with the focus on providing opportunities to businesses and potentially creating 6 million new jobs. Agriculture, healthcare, small businesses and infrastructure also featured prominently in the proposals.

“This budget seeks to lay the foundation and give a blueprint to steer the economy over the Amrit Kaal of the next 25 years – from India at 75 to India at 100,” Sitharaman said in her shortest budget speech, which lasted 1 hour and 30 minutes.

With Union Budget 2022, Indian government will spend 39.45 trillion rupees ($529.7 billion) in the coming fiscal year to build public infrastructure and drive economic growth.

The GDP is seen to grow by 9.2% -- the quickest rate among major economies -- in the current year, with the government expecting a repeat performance in the next year with an estimated 8% to 8.5% expansion.

Here are main takeaways from the Budget 2022:

Digital Assets:

A digital rupee will be introduced by the Reserve Bank of India in 2022-23.

A 30 per cent tax will apply on income from the sale or acquisition of virtual and digital assets such as cryptocurrency.

Income Tax:

Taxpayers can file updated income tax returns within two years in one-time window. There is no change to Income Tax slabs.

Jal Shakti Master Plan:

The PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan is driven by seven engines: roads, railways, airports, ports, mass transport, waterways and logistics infrastructure, which will pull forward the economy in unison.

The Gati Shakti Master Plan for expressways is to be drawn up in FY23 and 100 new cargo terminals will be built over the next three years. The national highway network will be expanded by 25,000 km in FY23.

Mental Health Programme:

A National Tele Mental Health programme will be started to improve access to quality mental health counselling and care services.

SEZ Act:

The Special Economic Zones Act will be replaced with new legislation that will allow states to become partners in developing enterprise and service hubs.

This will cover all large existing and new industrial enclaves to optimally utilise infrastructure and enhance export competitiveness.

Digital education:

The ‘One Class-One TV Channel’ programme of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels.

This will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12.

A Digital University will be set up to provide world-class quality universal education with personalised learning experience. This will be available in different Indian languages and ICT formats.

Housing:

The government will allocate Rs 48,000 crore for PM Awas Yojana and complete 8 million houses for the scheme’s identified and eligible beneficiaries in rural and urban areas in FY23.

Defense:

To reduce imports and promote AtmaNirbharta in equipment for the armed forces, 68 percent of the capital procurement budget will be earmarked for the domestic defence industry.

Private industry will be encouraged to take up design and development of military platforms and equipment in collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Organisation and other entities.

Infrastructure:

• 5G spectrum auctions to be conducted in 2022
• Scheme for design-led manufacturing for 5G will be part of production-linked scheme
• To award contracts to lay optical fibre in rural areas, completion in 2025
• 480 billion rupees set aside for affordable housing in 2022/23
• To allocate additional 195 billion rupees for production-linked incentives towards solar equipment manufacturing

Agriculture:

• Domestic scheme introduced to reduce dependence on oilseed imports
• Fund with blended capital raised under co-investment model to finance agriculture startups
•  Railways to develop infrastructure for small farmers in 2022/23

These imported items are set to get costlier:

• Imitation Jewellery
• Single or multiple loudspeakers
• Headphones and earphones
• Smart meters
• Solar cells
• Solar modules
• X-ray machines
• Parts of electronic toys
• Umbrellas

Certain imported goods will become cheaper as customs duty has been slashed:

• Frozen mussels and frozen squids
• Asafoetida
• Cocoa beans
• Methyl alcohol
• Acetic acid
• Cut and polished diamonds
• Camera lens for cellular mobile phone
• Mobile phone chargers
• Wearable devices
• Heavy feed stocks for petroleum refining
• Steel

Image credit: AFP