Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has presented the Budget for the year 2022, on February 1, in the parliament. The Budget presentation has come a day after the presentation of the Economic Survey, on January 31. The Union Budget is an annual report of India that contains the revenue and expenditure of the government of India for the end of a particular fiscal year (from April 1 to March 31). The budget includes the revenue budget and the capital budget as well.
The Finance Minister began the tabling of the budget by expressing empathy for those who suffered during the Covid pandemic. The Minister said that the nation’s growth is expected to be 9.2 per cent, making it the highest among all the large economies of the world. Here is all that has been announced during the budget presentation so far:
Comprehensive package for the participation of the state governments and MSMEs to be introduced for the farmers to adopt natural farming. The Union government has announced the extension of the ECGL services for the hospitality services by the small and medium sectors which are yet to bounce back from the pandemic. The ECGL services have been extended by March 2023 with an additional increased cover of Rs. 50,000.
The reorientation of Skilling programs will be done. For the skilling, upskilling, and reskilling of the youth of India, the Digital DESH e-portal will be launched by the government. The number of channels of “One Class One TV Channel” will be increased from 12 to 200 for the provision of supplementary education in regional languages of the nation for class first to twelfth.
A digital university will also be developed for world-class quality education at par with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) standards to be accessed by students. A National Tele Mental Health Program will be launched for mental health counselling. The Union government is also committed to Atma Nirbhar Bharat Armed Forces. 68 per cent of the total capital procurement budget will be deployed for the domestic industry for the year 2022-2023 which was 58 per cent in 2021-2022, as per the Finance Minister. Rs. 19,500 crores have been allocated for PLI for the development of a high-efficiency module for polysilicon.
Farmers who want to take up Agro-Forestry will be provided with financial support. Outplay for capital expenditure has increased by 35.4 per cent from last year and gone up to 7.50 lakh crore in the year 2022-2023. The Finance Minister announced that Sovereign Green Bonds will be issued in public sector projects to reduce the carbon footprint initiatives in the Indian economy. The customs duty has been reduced to 5 per cent on cut and polished diamonds and gems. There will be duty concessions for parts of mobile phones as well.
This is the fourth budget to be presented by the current Finance Minister of the country, Nirmala Sitharaman. The presentation of the budget was preceded by a virtual meeting of the Rajya Sabha floor leaders and was chaired by the Chairman of the house along with the Vice-President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu yesterday. The joint sitting of the two houses, on January 31, was addressed by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind.
