Union Budget 2022 | Highlights and Updates

Union Budget 2022

Budget 2022 is a hot topic and a topic of discussion all over India. Every year, the Finance Minister of India presents the Budget. The Union Budget is always presented first in the union budget of India. On Tuesday, i,e on February 1st, Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitaraman, presented a budget worth Rs 39.45 lakh crore, with a focus on infrastructure development. Since 1947, there have been a total of 73 annual budgets, 14 interim budgets and four special budgets, or mini-budgets. The total expenditure in 2022-23 is estimated at Rs 39.45 lakh crore, while the total receipts other than borrowings are estimated at Rs 22.84 lakh crore. Total expenditure in 2021-22 is expected to be Rs 34,83,236 crore, which is 1% higher than the revised estimate of 2020-21. Expenditure in 2021-22 has increased at an annual rate of 14% over 2019-20.

Budget is a vast topic, in the post below we will see some of the highlights and some important points covered in the budget 2022.

Total Expenditure: The government has proposed to spend Rs 34,83,236 crore in the Union Budget 2022-23. As per the reports, the government has spent 13% higher than the last year’s proposed budget. In the year 2020-2021, the total budget was reported to be 34,50,305 crore rupees.

Receipts: A Receipt Budget is one of the most important documents in a Union Budget. It is the list of income generated from different sources. It shows the source from where the income has been generated to the government in the financial year. The receipts are expected to be Rs 19,76,424 crore in 2021-22, which is higher than the estimates of 2020-2021. Last year due to the impact of the covid 19, revised estimates for receipts were 29% lower than budget estimates.

Ministry wise Budget allocations: Every Union Budget has some amount allocated for every ministry. The union budget of this financial year has the top priority for a few ministries. There are 13 ministries with the highest allocations this year. The highest allocation is observed in the Ministry of Jal Shakti (64%), followed by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (48%) and the Ministry of Communications (31%).

Tax proposals in the Finance Bill

Income tax proposals are the main thing, we as individuals wait for the whole Union budget. There is no change in the income tax rates for individuals or corporations. Tax slabs remain unchanged. But wait, there is some good news as well.

Tax exemption on the interest income on the employees’ contributions to provident funds will be limited up to Rs 2.5 lakh. If you are a start-up owner or just gained some profit, or if you are paying interest on home loans this includes tax deduction up to Rs 1.5 lakh.

Cess Charges: A cess is imposed as an additional tax besides the existing tax. It is nothing but, the tax on tax. The Cess will be imposed on some imported items like gold, silver, alcoholic beverages, coal, and cotton. The additional tax will be payable on petrol and diesel charges. The cess is imposed differently in different states and their revenue receipts will be adversely affected. The custom taxes have been increased on some items like cotton, silk and some automobile parts. If you run a business and 95% of the transactions are made digitally and if your turnover is less than 5 crores, then it’s not mandatory to maintain the audit records. The limit has been increased to 10 crores.

Education – Our finance minister Nirmala Sitaraman has some good news in the union Budget for Education sector. Below are the few things to be known.

• 2 lakh Anganwadis to be upgraded for improving child health
• Due to covid, there has been Two years of the education gap and to bridge this gap we need to double-up efforts
• Digital university to set up for online education
• One class, one TV channel’ programme of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will enable all states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12

Startups in technology especially drone

Every Union Budget has some amount reserved for technology startups.

• Defence R&D to be opened up for industry and startups
• Startups will be promoted to facilitate ‘drone shakti’ to promote drone usage

Agriculture

In Every union budget agriculture is the most stressed topic and it is not exempted in the Indian Union Budget 2022.

1. Fund to be facilitated through NABARD to finance startups for agriculture and rural enterprise
2. Use of Kisan Drones to be promoted for crop assessment
3. Digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides and nutrients
4. Procurement of wheat in Rabi season and procurement of paddy in Kharif season
5. Direct payment of MSP value to their accounts
6. Farmers should make use of hi-tech services and it will be launched very soon
7. MSP for farmers to be transferred directly into bank accounts
8. Promotion of natural farming without the use of more chemicals
9. Operation Green Scheme, currently applicable to tomatoes, onions, and potatoes, will be enlarged to include 22 perishable products. The Agriculture Infrastructure Fund will be made available to APMCs to improve infrastructure facilities

Virtual currency: RBI to introduce the digital rupee using blockchain technology starting in the year 2023.
Digital currency is yet to be legalized in India and it is expected to happen in the next financial year.

E-Vehicles and energy

• The Ujjwala scheme will be extended to cover one crore more beneficiaries
• Energy efficiency and energy saving methods should be promoted.
• A battery-swapping policy and Rs 19,500 crore allocation in PLI for solar modules

Internet connectivity

• We all will use 5G Soon and the auction will be held in 2022-2023
• All villages will get access to digital resources as urban areas

E-Passport

Issuing an e-Passport is one of the main discussions held in the Indian union budget 2022-23. The finance minister has said India would start issuing e-passports in 2022-23. When first announced in 2019, these were some of the features proposed

Infra, Roadways, Railways, Waterways and Logistics

• New train products in the form of ‘One Station – One Product’, 400 next-gen Vande Bharat trains, and 100 PM Gati Shakti cargo terminals to be launched
• Draft DPRs for five river links have been finalised
• 400 Vande Bharat trains with higher efficiency will be developed
• Four multi-modal national parks contracts will be awarded in FY23
• PM Gatishakti master plan for expressways will be formulated in the next financial year

Housing and basic amenities: In 2022-23, 80 lakh households will be identified for the affordable household scheme.
60,000 crore rupees is allocated for providing access to tap water to 3.8 crore households.

Employment

Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for achieving Atma Nirbhar Bharat has received an excellent response, potentially creating 60 lakh new jobs and additional production of 30 lakh crore during the next Keycap digit five years.

Social Justice: To facilitate credit flow for SCs, STs, and women, the margin money requirement under the Stand-Up India scheme will be reduced from 25% to 15%. Ekalavya Model schools to be established in tribal areas.

Now if I have to summarize the Indian union budget highlights, in layman’s words, stay till the end.

What’s going to get costly in the union budget 2022:

• All the imported items

What is going to be cheaper :

• Agriculture tools, the lens of the mobile camera module, mobile phone chargers, hearing devices, wearable electronic devices, chemicals for petroleum refining, cut and polished gemstones and diamonds, electronic items, steel scraps

Highlights of the Indian union budget proposed by the ministry of finance

1. One station, One product to be popularised
2. Railways will develop new products for small farmers
3. Modern infrastructure is been emphasised
4. 400 New Generation Vande Bharat trains to be introduced.
5. 100 new Rail Cargo Terminals to be developed
6. Agriculture university to be prioritised and proposals for new agricultural universities
7. National Highways will be extended by 25,000 km
8. By 2023, 18 crore households should have piped water
9. 5G Services
10. Tax slabs remain unchanged
11. The Government introduced e-passports with embedded chips, an interesting technology
12. Boost in the energy sector, battery swapping policy to be introduced
13. Digital currency like cryptocurrency is to be legalised next year

Budget is a vast topic, and in every union budget, there are so many things discussed. But as a common man, we should know some of the highlights of the Indian Union Budget 2022.