Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2023-24 on Wednesday. The Union Budget is the annual financial report of India, which deals with the expected income and expenditure of the economy in the upcoming fiscal year.

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FM has laid down the seven pillars or ‘Saptarishi’ of Union Budget 2023:

  1. Inclusive Development
  2. Reaching Last Mile.
  3. Infrastructure Investment.
  4. Unleashing Potential.
  5. Green Growth.
  6. Youth Power.
  7. Financial Sector.

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Major Takeaways
  • Promise to ramp investment and job creation. FM announced the increment of capital investment outlay in the third year by 33 per cent to ₹10 lakh crore, which will be 3.3 per cent of GDP.
  • The government will launch sub-scheme for PM Sampada Yojyna to target invest of ₹6,000 crore to target fishermen, fish vendor, to expand the market.
  • Investment of ₹2,200 crore will be outlaid for the collaboration between farmers, state and industry, to promote input supply, extension service and market expansion.
  • FM enhanced the outlay for PM Awas Yojana by 66 per cent to over ₹79,000 crore.
  • To promote healthcare, a promise to establish 157 new nursing colleges has been made.
  • FM said that the effective capex will be ₹13.7 lakh crore, forming 4.5 per cent of the GDP.
  • Urban infra-development funds will be managed by National Housing Bank (NHB) and will be used by public agencies. An allocation of ₹10,000 crore p.a. for urban infra development fund has been made.
  • For easy business, FM said to reduce 39,000 compliances, over 3,400 legal provision decriminalised.
  • About 100 labs to be built in top engineering institutes to promote 5G services in India.
  • Mahila Savings Certificate for 2 years up to March 2025, a new small savings scheme announced for women.
  • Niti Ayog policy expanded to continue for another 3 years.
  • FM said ₹2 lakh crore for the entire year will be borne by the central government under the ‘PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana’ scheme.
  • Allocation of ₹35 crore for energy transition and net-zero carbon emission target will be made.
  • The maximum deposit for senior citizen saving scheme to be enhanced to ₹30 lakh from for ₹15 lakh.
  • Fiscal deficit for Fiscal Year 2024 is projected at 5.9 per cent of GDP.
  • Credit guarantee for MSMEs of ₹9,000 crores infused in the corpus, allowing additional collateral-free credit of ₹2 lakh crores, starting from April 1, 2023.
  • Tax exemption limit increased to ₹3 lakh, as a big move in the budget.
  • The budget also proposed to reduce highest surcharge rate to 25 per cent from 37 per cent.
  • Exemption extended on income up to ₹7 lakh in new tax regime.
  • The new tax regime has been made the default tax regime in the current budget.
  • A maximum deposit limit for Senior Citizen Savings Scheme has been set to ₹30 lakh from ₹15 lakh.
  • Maximum monthly income account scheme is hiked to ₹9 lakh from ₹5 lakh for single account and to ₹15 lakh from ₹9 lakh for joint account.
  • For salaried class and the pensioners including family pensioners, each salaried person with an income of ₹5 lakh or more will benefit by ₹52,500.
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