Key Highlights of the Union Budget 2022-2023

What is the Budget?

In simple terms, Budget is the blueprint of the income and expenses to be done by someone in a defined period of time. When that Budget is announced by the government it is termed as the annual budget for the country.

In India, we have a tradition of announcing the Budget on the 1st of February every year and this year is no exception. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Annual Budget for FY 2022-23.

This was one of the shortest budgets in history with a major emphasis on Infrastructure, Cryptocurrency, Digital Assets, Real Estate and Telecom.

A Deficit Budget

The government announced a deficit budget and this is not a new phenomenon. A deficit budget actually helps in the growth of the country.

A budget in which Expenses is greater than Income is called a deficit budget. This year as well Government has announced the deficit budget with a set rate of 6.4%.

Effect on the Income

In order to run the country, the government needs funds and there are several ways to collect it. Government owns several entities, collects taxes etc to run the nation.

In this year's budget government major income sources are:

• Cryptos including all the digital assets will now be taxed at 30% flat rate at the receivers end with TDS at 1% after a specified limit.

• Income Tax slabs remain unchanged and therefore taxation remains the same

• Divestment target of FY 22-23 set at ₹65000 Crores, even last year government had targeted the divestment of ₹20000 crores but was unable to achieve it owing to covid.

• LIC IPO to come out in the near future which will also help the government earn a huge income as the Government has a major stake in LIC. LIC IPO is said to be the largest IPO in India.

• 5G spectrum to be rolled out for bidding in the coming Fiscal Year which will again help the government in earning a huge sum of money

• Gross GST collected amounts to ₹ 1,46,986 crores which is the highest since the inception of GST.

Major Expenses for the Year FY 2022-23

As the government has announced a deficit budget that means the expenses are planned to be much more than the income.

Let's have a look at the major expenses to be incurred by the government for the year:

• ₹7.5 Lakh Crore CAPEX to be incurred to improve the infrastructure of the country. CAPEX basically means Capital Expenditure whose benefits are enjoyed over a period of time.

• Sovereign Green bonds to be issued to reduce the carbon dependence and increase the expenditure to finance green projects.

• PLI schemes in 14 sectors with potential to create 60 lakh new jobs

• ₹2.37 lakh crore of MSP directly to the farmers of Wheat and Paddy

• ECLGS to be extended upto March 2023,guaranteed cover to be extended by another ₹50000 crore

Other Major Highlights

Various other things are brought into focus as it happens every year. The most important things to focus on are:

• The fiscal deficit of the year is set at 6.4%

• GDP Growth rate expected at 9.2%

• Digital Rupee to be launched soon

• Amendments expected in the Bankruptcy Code

• National Ropeways development program to be taken up in PPP mode

• GST collection is estimated to be the highest till January 2022

• Issuance of E- passports to be rolled out in the upcoming year

• 1.5 Lakh post offices to be connected to the Core Banking

• Digital Universities will be set up to provide education.

Conclusion

Overall the budget has received a good reaction so far. The stock market also saw a boom since the budget was announced. This budget is also being termed as a futuristic budget. Let's see where it goes.