Union Budget 2022: This Years' Budget Focuses on Digital India

While presenting the budget 2022-23, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated, “India’s economic growth in the current year is estimated to be 9.2 per cent, highest among all large economies.”

Here are some key highlights from the budget:

• Through the PM GatiShakti National Master Plan 7 engines in the National Infrastructure Pipeline will be aligned with the PM GatiShakti framework.
• The National Highways network will be expanded by 25,000 km in 2022-23. Moreover INR 20,000 crore will be mobilized to complement the public resources.
• The data exchange among all mode operators will be brought on Unified Logistics Interface Platform (ULIP), designed for Application Programming Interface (API) this will provide real-time information.
• 2,000 km of the network will be brought under Kavach. 400 new-generation Vande Bharat Trains with better energy efficiency and passenger riding experience will be developed and manufactured in the next three years.
• Use of ‘Kisan Drones’ will be promoted for crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides, and nutrients.
• States will be encouraged to revise the syllabi of agricultural universities.
• A fund with blended capital facilitated through NABARD to finance startups for agriculture and rural enterprise will be initiated.
• Implementation of the Ken-Betwa Link Project is aimed at providing irrigation benefits.
• Draft DPRs of five river links, namely Damanganga-Pinjal, Par-TapiNarmada, Godavari-Krishna, Krishna-Pennar and Pennar-Cauvery have been finalized.
• Udyam, e-Shram, NCS and ASEEM portals will be interlinked as portals with live, organic databases.
• Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) will be extended up to March 2023.
• The National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF) will be aligned with dynamic industry needs.
• ‘one class-one TV channel’ programme of PM eVIDYA will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV channels. This will enable states to provide supplementary education in regional languages for grades 1-12.
• 750 virtual labs in science and mathematics, and 75 skilling e-labs for the simulated learning environment, will be set up in 2022-23.
• A Digital University will be established to provide access to students across India which will available in different Indian languages and ICT formats.
• An open platform, for the National Digital Health Ecosystem, will be rolled out that will consist of digital requisite healthcare registries.
• National Tele Mental Health Programme will include a network of 23 tele-mental health centres.
• Two lakh anganwadis will be upgraded.
• Through the “Har Ghar, Nal Se Jal”, campaign there is an aim to cover 3.8 crore households in 2022-23.
• In 2022-23, 80 lakh houses will be completed through PM Awas Yojana, both rural and urban. INR 48,000 crores is allocated for this.
• Central Government will work with the state governments to the reduction of time required for all land and construction-related approvals.
• Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for NorthEast, PM-DevINE, will be implemented through the North-Eastern Council.
• In 2022, 100 per cent of 1.5 lakh post offices will come on the core banking system.
• Proposal to set up 75 Digital Banking Units (DBUs) in 75 districts of the country by Scheduled Commercial Banks.
• A single window portal, PARIVESH, for all green clearance’s scope will now be expanded, to provide information to the applicants.
• Issuance of e-Passports using embedded chip and futuristic technology will be rolled out in 2022-23.
• Clean tech and governance solutions, special mobility zones with zero fossil-fuel policy, and EV vehicles pushed in public transport. A battery swapping policy will be brought out.
• States will be encouraged to adopt Unique Land Parcel Identification Number to facilitate IT-based management of records.
• An end-to-end online e-Bill System will be launched for use by all central ministries for their procurements.
• An AVGC promotion task force with all stakeholders will be set up to recommend ways to build domestic capacity for serving markets.
• Spectrum auctions will be conducted in 2022 to facilitate the rollout of 5G mobile services within 2022-23 by private telecom providers.
• The contracts for laying optical fibre in all villages, including remote areas, will be awarded under the Bharatnet project through PPP in 2022-23.
• The Special Economic Zones Act will be replaced with new legislation that will enable the states to become partners in ‘Development of Enterprise and Service Hubs’.
• Defence R&D will be opened up for industry, startups and academia with 25 per cent of the defence R&D budget earmarked.
• To facilitate domestic manufacturing for the ambitious goal of 280 GW of installed solar capacity by 2030, an additional allocation of INR 19,500 crores.
• Five to seven per cent biomass pellets will be co-fired in thermal power plants resulting in CO2 savings of 38 MMT annually.
• The outlay for capital expenditure is stepped up by 35.4 per cent from INR 5.54 lakh crore in the current year to ` 7.50 lakh crore in 2022-23.
• Sovereign Green Bonds will be issued for mobilizing resources for green infrastructure.
• Digital Rupee, using blockchain and other technologies, will be issued by the Reserve Bank of India starting 2022-23.
• The outlay for ‘Scheme for Financial Assistance to States for Capital Investment’ is being enhanced from INR 10,000 crores in the Budget Estimates to INR 15,000 crores in the Revised Estimates for the current year.
• For 2022-23, the allocation is INR 1 lakh crore to assist the states in catalysing overall investments in the economy.
• States will be allowed a fiscal deficit of 4 per cent of GSDP.
• The Revised Estimate of capital expenditure is INR 6.03 lakh crore. the total expenditure in 2022-23 is estimated at INR 39.45 lakh crore, while the total receipts other than borrowings are estimated at INR 22.84 lakh crore.
• Proposal to permit taxpayers to file an Updated Return on payment of additional tax within two years from the end of the relevant assessment year.
• Proposal to reduce the surcharge on co-operative societies from present 12 per cent to 7 per cent for those having total income of more than INR 1 crore and up to INR 10 crores.
• The parent or guardian of a differently-abled person can take an insurance scheme for such people. Proposal to allow the payment of annuity and lump sum amount to the differently-abled dependent during the lifetime of parents/guardians, i.e., on parents/ guardians attaining the age of sixty years.
• Proposal to increase the tax deduction limit from 10 per cent to 14 per cent on employer’s contribution to the NPS account of State and Central Government employees.
• Propose to extend the period of incorporation of the eligible start-up by one more year, that is, up to March 31 2023 for providing such tax incentive.
• Propose to provide that any income from transfer of any virtual digital asset shall be taxed at the rate of 30 per cent.