Union Budget 2023 Highlights: Income Tax Relief, Boost to PM Awas Yojana

Video Producer: Mayank Chawla

Video Editor: Prajjwal Kumar

Relief from income tax, boost to PM Awas Yojana, hike in capital investment outlay - these were some of the key highlights in the Union Budget 2023-24 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, 1 February.

This was her fifth budget presentation and the final full budget by the Narendra Modi government before the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Here are the highlights of Union Budget 2023-24:

Taxation

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget on Wednesday, 1 February, announced new income tax slabs.
The new tax rates are:

• 0 to Rs 3 lakh - nil

• Rs 3 to 6 lakh - 5 percent

• Rs 6 to 9 lakh - 10 percent

• Rs 9 to 12 lakh - 15 percent

• Rs 12 to 15 lakh - 20 percent

• Above Rs 15 lakh - 30 percent

• The finance minister also said that Customs Duty rates on goods other than textiles and agriculture, will be reduced from 21% to 13%. As a result, there are minor changes in the basic custom duties, cesses & surcharges on some items including toys, bicycles, and automobiles.

• Cigarettes will get costlier after the National Calamity Contingent Duty (NCCD) on specified cigarettes is to be revised upwards by about 16 per cent.

Agriculture

• Public-private partnerships (PPPs) for cotton production, and push for digital infrastructure in agriculture.

• India is at the forefront of promoting millets or 'Shree Anna'. Jowar, Ragi, Kuttu, Bajrahave been an integral part of the Indian diet for centuries.

• Government to support Hyderabad-based millet institute as Centre of Excellence.

• Agri credit target to be increased to Rs 20 lakh crore

• Agriculture Accelerator Fund to be set up to encourage startups by young entrepreneurs.

• New sub-scheme in PM Matsya Samapada Yojana with investment of Rs 6,000 crore

• To enhance yield of extra long staple cotton, government will adopt a cluster-based and value chain approach

Education

• 38,800 teachers will be hired for Ekalavya Model Residential Schools. Over the next 3 years, the Centre will recruit 38,800teachers and support staff for 740 schools serving 3.5 lakh tribal students.

• National digital library for children and adolescents will be set up for facilitating quality books

• States will be encouraged to set up physical libraries for them at panchayat and ward levels and provide infrastructure for accessing the National Digital Library resources

• A National Digital Library for children and adolescents will be set up for facilitating the availability of quality books across geographies, languages, genres and levels, and to provide device-agnostic accessibility

Health & Wellness

• 157 new nursing colleges will be established in colocation with the existing 157 medical colleges established since 2014.

• The Indian Council For Medical Research Labs will be made available for research by public and private medical college faculty and private sector R&D teams for encouraging collaborative research and innovation.

• A new programme to promote pharmaceutical innovation to be announced.

• Dedicated multi-disciplinary courses for medical devices and technology in existing colleges.

Environment

• Green credit programme will be notified under the Environment Protection Act

• Budget provides for Rs 35,000 crore for priority capital investment towards energy transition and net zero objective

• The Government is targeting 5 MT of Green Hydrogen production by 2030

• Government to support setting up of battery energy storage of 4,000 MwH

• Green credit programme will be notified to incentivise environmentally sustainable and responsible actions by companies

• Government to take up mangrove plantation along the coastline under the new MISHTI scheme

• Government to promote conservation values through a scheme to encourage optimal use of wetlands

• Allocating adequate funds for scrapping the government’s old polluting vehicles

Technology 

• Three Centres of Excellence for artificial intelligence will be established in top educational institutions across the country.

• A national data governance policy will be brought out. This will enable access to anonymised data.

• A "one-stop solution" will be designed using DigiLocker services for citizens to update their IDs and addresses that are maintained by various government agencies and regulators.

• The scope of documents that can be stored in DigiLocker is also set to expand.

• The KYC process will also be simplified, instead of the one-size-fits-all approach.

• Over 100 labs for developing applications using 5G services will be set up in engineering institutions to realise the new range of opportunities, business models, and employment potential.

• The government is looking to develop a digital public infrastructure for agriculture that is open source and interoperable.

• A 71 percent increase was recorded in digital payment transactions (and 91 percent increase in transaction value) and fiscal support for this digital public infrastructure will continue in FY2023-24.

MSMEs

• If MSMEs fail to execute contract, 95 percent of performance security will be returned to small business as part of Vivad Se Vishwas

• Bringing another dispute resolution scheme under Vivad Se Vishwas-2 to settle commercial disputes

• The government also proposed to increase limit for presumptive taxation for MSMEs and certain professionals to Rs 3 cr and Rs 75 lakh respectively.

Infrastructure

• Capita outlay of Rs 2.40 lakh crore for railways in next financial year, nine times higher than 2013-14 budget

• 100 critical transport infrastructure projects have been identified for implementation

• Cities will be encouraged to increase creditworthiness for municipal bonds

• All cities and towns will be enabled for 100 percent transition of sewers and septic tanks from manhole to machine hole mode

• Government to create an Urban lnfrastructure Development Fund
  on the lines of Rural lnfrastructure Development Fund; to
  be managed by the National Housing Bank

• Government to spend Rs 10,000 crore per year for urban infrastructure development fund

Women

• "In line with the sentiment of Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, Mahila Samman Savings Certificate to be launched wherein women can make deposits of up to Rs 2 lakh at an interest rate of 7.5% for maximum two years ," FM Sitharaman said. This is a one-time saving scheme, she added.