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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday presented last the full budget of the Modi 2.0 government before the next parliamentary elections in 2024. This year’s ‘Amrit Kaal’ Budget has provided massive relief to the country’s growing middle class, infrastructure, health, and education sectors that will benefit every section of society. Here are five big records in the budget set by the government for the Fiscal Year 2023-24
1. Income Tax rebate
In what we can term as the highlight of the Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a number of changes in the income tax slabs under the new tax regime which has turned out to be a huge relief to middle and salaried-class people.
FM announced an increase in the income tax rebate from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7 lakh stating that the new tax regime will now be the default tax regime. She went on to propose changing the tax structure in the new regime by reducing the number of tax slabs to 5 and increasing the tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh.
On personal income tax, the FM announced, “Tax for income of Rs 0-Rs 3 lakh is nil, for income above Rs 3 lakh and up to Rs 5 lakh will be taxed at 5%, for income of above Rs 6 lakh and up to Rs 9 lakh will be taxed at 10% and for income above Rs 12 lakh and up to Rs 15 lakh to be taxed at 20% and above 15 lakhs at Rs 30 %”.
Each salaried person with an income of Rs. 15.5 lakhs or more will benefit by Rs. 52,500. For pensioners, the FM announced extending the benefit of the standard deduction to the new tax regime.
2. Big allocations to Railway & Defence sector
Railway Sector- Finance Minister Sitharaman announced a capital outlay of 2.40 lakh crore to the Railway sector of the country which is notably the highest-ever outlay for the sector since the 2013-2014 Budget. The allotment of 2.40 lakh crore to the Railway sector will come as a boost to the largest employer in the country, something that they have requested time and again. The multi-modal connection network comprising rail and road networks is seeing an exceptional boost in the last few years. The Indian Railways (IR), with over 68,031 route km, is the fourth largest network in the world under single management.
Defence Sector– The Defence Ministry has been allocated Rs 5.94 lakh crores for the financial year 2023-24. The allocation for the Defence Ministry is 13% higher than what was allocated in the union budget last year in 2022.
In addition, 50 additional airports, helipads, water aero drones, and advanced landing grounds will be revived to improve regional air connectivity, said FM Nirmala Sitharaman. Rs 35,000 crores priority capital for the energy transition, she said. Battery storage will get viability gap funding.
3. Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence
In order to relish the vision of ‘Make AI in India and Make AI work for India’, three Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence will be set up in top educational institutions. Leading industry players will partner in conducting interdisciplinary research, and develop cutting-edge applications and scalable problem solutions in the areas of agriculture, health and sustainable cities. This will galvanize an effective AI ecosystem and nurture quality human resources in the field.
4. Health Education and Skilling
- 157 new nursing colleges will be established in core locations with the existing 157 medical colleges established in 2014.
- A mission to eliminate sickle cell Anemia by 2047 will be launched entailing awareness creation and universal screening of 7 cr. people in affected tribal areas
- Facilities in select ICMR labs will be made available for research by public and private medical college faculty, and private sector research teams for encouraging collaborative research and innovation.
- A new programme to promote research and innovation in pharmaceuticals will be taken up through centres of excellence
- Dedicated multidisciplinary courses for medical devices will be supported in existing institutions to ensure the availability of skilled manpower for futuristic medical technologies, high-end manufacturing and research.
5. Digital Process Simplified
A major decision has been announced that will simplify complicated identification processes and allow business establishments across the country to breathe a sigh of relief. “For business establishments required to have Permanent Account Number, the PAN will be used as a common identifier for all Digital Systems of specified government agencies,” she said.
Until now, business establishments had to go through long processes of submitting information over and over again, thus making it more time-consuming and complex.
