New Delhi, Feb 1 Following are the highlights of the Union Budget for 2022-23 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament on Tuesday:
FISCAL POSITION — India’s growth estimated at 9.2 pc, to be highest among large economies — Fiscal deficit in 2022-23 estimated at 6.4 pc of GDP — Total expenditure in 2022-23 pegged at Rs 39.45 lakh cr — Total receipts other than borrowings estimated at Rs 22.84 lakh cr in FY23 — Effective Capital Expenditure’ of Central Government estimated at Rs 10.68 lakh cr in 2022-23, which is about 4.1pc of GDP — Fiscal deficit in current year at 6.9 pc of GDP (against 6.8pc in Budget Estimates) — 60 lakh new jobs to be created under productivity linked incentive scheme in 14 sectors TAX PROPOSALS — No change in personal income tax rates — Provision to file an updated return on payment of additional tax; can be filed within two years from the end of the relevant assessment year. — Updated return provision to enable assessee to declare income missed out earlier — Tax deduction limit increased from 10% to 14% on employer’s contribution to the NPS account of State Government employees — Incentives for Start-ups: Period of incorporation extended by 1 year, up to March 31, 2023 for eligible start-ups to avail tax benefit — Any income from transfer of any virtual digital asset to be taxed at the rate of 30 pc; gift of virtual digital asset also to be taxed in the hands of recipient — Health and Education Cess: any surcharge or cess on income, profits not allowable as business expenditure — No set off, of any loss to be allowed against undisclosed income detected during search, survey operations –Alternate Minimum Tax paid by cooperatives brought down from 18.5 per cent to 15 per cent — Payment of annuity and lump sum amount from insurance scheme to be allowed to differently-abled dependent during the lifetime of parents/guardians, that is on parents/ guardian attaining the age of 60 years — Surcharge on long term capital gains arising on transfer of any type of assets capped at 15 pc — Gradual phasing out of concessional rates in capital goods and project imports; applying a tariff of 7.5 pc, conducive to the growth of domestic sector — Over 350 exemption entries proposed to be gradually phased out, like exemption on certain agri produce, chemicals, fabrics, medical devices, and drugs and medicines for which sufficient domestic capacity exists — Customs rate, tariff structure simplified particularly for sectors like chemicals, textiles and metals — Customs duty rates to be calibrated for graded rate structure; to facilitate domestic manufacturing of wearable devices, hearable devices and electronic smart meters — Duty concessions to parts of transformer of mobile phone chargers, camera lens of mobile camera module and some other items to promote domestic manufacturing of high growth electronic items — Customs duty on cut, polished diamonds, gemstones cut to 5%; no duty on simply sawn diamond — Customs duty of at least Rs 400 per kg to be paid on imitation jewellery import — Customs duty on umbrellas raised to 20%; exemption to parts of umbrellas withdrawn — Customs duty exemption given to steel scrap last year extended for another year to offer relief to MSME secondary steel producers — Unblended fuel to attract an additional differential excise duty of Rs 2/ litre from Oct 1, 2022, to encourage blending of fuel ALLOCATION AND REFORMS — Rs 2.37 lakh cr direct payment to 1.63 crore farmers for procurement of wheat, paddy –Rs 2 lakh cr additional credit for Micro and Small Enterprises to be facilitated under the Credit Guarantee Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises — For MSMEs, guarantee cover under ECLGS to be expanded by Rs 50,000 Crore to total cover of Rs 5 lakh cr — Raising and Accelerating MSME performance (RAMP) programme with outlay of Rs 6,000 crore to be rolled out for MSMEs — Rs 60,000 crore allocated to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23 under `Har Ghar, Nal se Jal’ — Rs 48,000 crore allocated for completion of 80 lakh houses in 2022-23 under PM Awas Yojana — Additional allocation of Rs 19,500 crore for Production Linked Incentive for manufacture of high efficiency solar modules to meet the goal of 280 GW of installed solar power by 2030 — Initial allocation of Rs 1,500 crore made to enable livelihood activities for youth and women under the Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East Region (PM-DevINE) — SEZ Act to be replaced with new legislation to enable States to become partners in Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs’ — Defence: 68% of capital procurement budget earmarked for domestic industry in 2022-23, up from 58% in 2021-22 — Defence R&D to be opened up for industry, startups and academia with 25% of defence R&D budget earmarked — Scheduled Commercial Banks to set up 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) in 75 districts — 100 per cent of 1.5 lakh post offices to come on core banking system — e-Passports with embedded chip, futuristic technology to be rolled out — Battery swapping policy to be brought out for setting up charging stations at scale in urban areas for promotion of electric mobility — Centre for Processing Accelerated Corporate Exit (C-PACE) to be established for speedy winding-up of companies — Scheme for design-led manufacturing to be launched to build a strong ecosystem for 5G as part of the PLI scheme — Data Centres and Energy Storage Systems to be given infrastructure status — RBI to introduce digital rupee in FY23 to boost digital economy, better currency management.
Source: PTI
