Budget 2023 key highlights live: The Budget for 2023-24 kept its focus on expanding Capex showing that the Modi government's priorities are building roads, highways, and railway lines. The middle class has been given some relief in terms of tweaks in the new income tax regime clearly pointing out that the government wants a shift towards the new regime from the older one. The FM stuck to the fiscal deficit roadmap in the Budget with a target of 5.9% in FY 24 and adhering to the target for the current year. This is a positive considering a bloated deficit will have caused worries about finding the gap.
In the agriculture and allied sector, custom duty on aqua feed has been reduced, which would help in decreasing the inputs costs and promoting export competitiveness of marine products. After witnessing robust growth in 2021-22, exports of marine products from India have witnessed tepid growth during the April-December 2022-23 period. The reduction in custom duty on inputs would infuse vitality to exports from the sector and help tap the potential in the sector. Read More
According to former Himachal Pradesh chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, the Union Budget has paved the way for ease of living by emphasising opportunities, development, and economic stability.
A global hub for millets, according to the BJP leader, would be a significant step toward increasing farmers' income.
Amid the growing fears of slowdown and global recession, the Union Budget is growth-oriented, boosting allocations across sectors, according to IT industry body Nasscom. The budget offers a playing ground for the startup community as well, and has highlighted that India is the third-largest ecosystem for startups, Nasscom said in a statement.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said that the Union budget lays the strong foundation for 'Amrit Kaal', with the farsightedness of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and focus on micro to macro-level, aimed at fast-paced development of the nation.
"Allocations have been increased in the existing projects. We had a demand to increase the scale of agriculture financing, they have increased it, so it will benefit the State. Also, we had asked for priority to be given to rural infrastructure. This has been done through Jal Jeevan Mission and PM Awas Yojna," Bommai said.
The defence budget from Finance Minister Nirmala Sithamaram throws up several interesting insights. The key thing to look at are the capital budget allocations. The Army has received an increase of 16.23 per cent, the Navy, 10.96 per cent and the Air Force, 2.79 per cent.The capital budget is the clearest indication of what the government can fork out in the next financial year to modernisation, while paying for ongoing and new acquisitions.
The Union Budget has been presented in the backdrop of a strong recovery in the Indian economy post covid, recessionary headwinds for major global economies in 2023 and a turbulent global geopolitical environment.The finance minister has focussed on reinvigorating economic growth, yet done that with a long-term sustainable approach, avoiding falling prey to short-term impulses, given that it was supposedly an election budget.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said a sub-scheme of the PM Matsya Sampada Yojana will be launched with a targeted investment of Rs 6,000 crore to further enable activities of fishermen, fish vendors, and micro and small enterprises, improve value-chain efficiencies, and expand the market. She also announced duty reduction for the key inputs for shrimp feed. Read More
Despite an impressive investment of Rs 2.4 lakh crore for railways, the finance minister managed to strike a delicate balance between increasing capital expenditure by 33 percent to Rs 10 lakh crore. Throughout the country, the budget has focused on improving physical and digital infrastructure. With an anticipated reduction from 6.4 percent to 5.9 percent, the minister has also maintained prudence by keeping the fiscal deficit in check.
Sickle cell anaemia is one of a group of inherited disorders known as SCD as it affects the shape of red blood cells, which carry oxygen to all parts of the body.India is among the countries with the highest burden of the disease globally, second only to Nigeria and mostly tribal people are afflicted with it, with some communities reporting as high as 40 percent of the population affected.“A mission to eliminate sickle cell anaemia by 2047 will be launched,” FM said in her budget announcement.
Even though it has historically been underfunded and ignored, the Mothers and Child Development (WCD) Ministry runs some of the most significant programmes in the nation that cater to the needs of women and young children. This pattern is continued in Budget 2023–23. The Ministry's overall budget allocation is Rs 25,449 crore, or around one-tenth of the budget for "roads and bridges" (Rs 2.45 lakh crore). Read more.
The pharmaceutical industry has applauded Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's budgetary proposal to support research and innovation in the sector, but is upset that APIs, a critical component of medicines, were not taken into consideration in the Budget 2023–24.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals chairman and managing director Glenn Saldanha said the plan to start a new programme for research and innovation through centres of excellence was a step in the right direction. Read more.
A senior economist said there is a danger of fiscal slippage when general election campaigning begins in 2024, but the recent success in meeting deficit targets shows the risk is smaller than in the past.
The fiscal deficit objective for the upcoming fiscal year was set at 5.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the Union Budget, which also maintained the aim for the current fiscal year of 6.4 percent of GDP.Read more.
