It is a financial plan for the upcoming year presented by Government of India in the Parliament on the first day of February and implemented in new financial year which begins in april.It includes government finances which further includes revenues and outlays .
Articles related to budget [1]
The word ‘budget’ is not mentioned anywhere in the constitution .Rather constitution mentions it as “Annual Financial Statement”.
Article 226 of the constitution states that to withdraw money from consolidated fund of India ,parliamentary’s approval is required .
Article 112-117 of the constitution deals with the financial matters.
Article 114(3) of the constitution states that no amount can be withdrawn from the consolidated fund of India without the enactment of a law .This is said to be a Appropriation bill.
Process of preparing the budget[2]
The Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Finance Ministry is the body which prepares the budget and the process for it starts in August-September .
- First step involves the issuance of circulars by the finance ministry to all ministries ,states ,union territories ,autonomous bodies .Circular has the orders to start preparing the estimates for the upcoming year.
- Second step involves the consultation between the ministries and the department of expenditure .
- Third step is to allocate revenues to various departments for their upcoming expenditures. When it is passed by both the houses of parliament then it is said to be ready for the implementation
- Then comes the printing of budget before which a halwa ceremony takes place which indicates that the printing of budget documents would start from that particular day itself .However this ceremony is being avoided during the times of covid. Lastly the day comes when the budget is presented and in the era of digital world ,the budget documents of the current year are present on the recently launched app “Union Budget”.
Budget 2022
It was presented by Nirmala Sitharaman on February 2022 for the year 2022-23. Her speech lasted for 1 hour 90 minutes . She broke the record in 2020 by giving longest speech on budget which lasted for 2 hours 42 minutes.
Budget 2022 was divided into two parts –Part A[3]
India saw a economic growth estimated to be at 9.2% and 60 lakh new jobs are expected under PLI( public linked incentive )scheme to be created .
Four priorities were mentioned under AMRIT KAAL(upcoming good times ):-
(a) PM gatishakti
(b)Inclusive development
(c)Financing Investments
(d) Productivity Enhancement and investment ,sunrise opportunities ,energy transition ,and climatic actions.
Goals of AMRIT KAAL
1. growth and all inclusive welfare
2.technology development
3.virtuous cycle starting from private investment
(a)PM GATISHAKTI
This plan includes seven engines for economic transition -roads ,railways, airports ,ports, mass transport, waterway and logistics infrastructure. National highway network to be expanded by 25000km and Rs.20,000crore to be utilized for road transport. Contracts to be assigned for the development of multimodal logistic parks at four locations .Innovative methods to be used for faster building of metro systems . Parvatmala to be taken up on PPP(public-private partnership)mode.
(b)Inclusive Development
Agriculture –Rs.2.37 lakh crore to be directly paid to all the farmers for the improvement of crops like wheat and paddy .Natural farming to be promoted in India .Kisan drones to be used for checking land records ,crop assessment and spraying of insecticides and nutrition .Directions to NABARD to facilitate funds for finance setups for agriculture and rural enterprise.
- Ken Betwa project -1400 crores and 9.08 lakh hectares of farmers land to be used for implementation of this project
- MSME(Micro and Small enterprise )-Funds to be raised for MSME ,Udyam,e-shram,NCS and ASEEM portals made to be interlinked for raising and accelerating the performance of MSMEs.
- Skill Development-DESH stack eportal to be launched so that citizens can learn the skills,reskill or upskill through online training. ‘DRAAS(Drone as a service )’and ‘ DRONE SHAKTI’ to be promoted. The required courses to be started in ITI in all states.
- Education –PM’s eVIDYA programme “one class-one TV channel” is directed to be expanded to 200 channels.Promotion of critical thinking skills and creating learning environment through virtual labs and skilling e-labs. Delivery of high quality e-content through digital teachers.
- Health- National Digital Health ecosystem and National Tele Mental Health Programme to be introduced for quality mental health counseling and care services .
- Saksham Anganwadi-Mission Shakti ,Mission Vatsalya ,Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 to provide benefits to women and children.
- H|ousing for all- Rs. 48,000 has been allocated for completion of 80 lakh houses in 2022-2023 under PM awaas yojana .
- PM-DevINE(Prime Minister’s development Initiative for North-East Region )-This programme includes raising of funds for the infrastructure and social development of North East region.Rs. 1500crore allocated for women and children of that particular area .
- Vibrant Villages programme – This scheme aims to ensure the development of border villages with less population,limited connectivity and infrastructure on the Northern border.
- Banking -75 Digital banking units to be set up in 75 districts by Scheduled commercial banks .Core banking system to be adopted.
- Accelerated Corporate Exit –C-pace (Centre for Processing accelerated corporate exit)to be introduced for speeding up the winding of the companies.
- Urban planning –Battery swapping policy to be introduced in urban areas .Town planning schemes and modernization of buildings to be carried out.
- e-Passport –e-passports with chips to be introduced.
- Export promotion- Special economic zones act to b replaced by new legislation .
- Telecom Sector –Strong ecosystem to be developed to enable 5g services.
- AVGC Promotion task force –Animation ,visual effects ,gaming and comic promotion task force to be established to realize the potential of this sector .
- Atma Nirbharta(self dependent) in Defence -68% of the capital procurement allotted to domestic industry . Independent nodal umbrella body to be eesyablished for testing and certification requirements.
- Sunrise Opportunities- Sunrise opportunities like Artificial intelligence ,drones ,semiconductor and its ecosystem,space economies etc. to have government’s contribution .
- Energy Transition and climatic Action –Rs 19,500 crore to be additionally allocated to meet the goal of 280GW of installed solar power by 2030. Some biomass pellets to be cofired, carbon dioxide savings of 38MMT annually,extra income to farmers and job opportunities to be provided to locals ,stubble burning to be avoided in agricultural fields.projects to be set up for coversion of coal into chemicals for the industry.
- Mobilising Resources – This includes raising of blended funds for Sunrise sector , Sovereign Green Bonds to be issued for Green infrastructure ,data centres and energy storage systems to be given infrastructure status. Measures to be taken to encourage one for more investments .
- Gift-IFSC –foreign universities and institutions to be opened in gift cities.International Arbitrartion Centre to be established to settle down disputes under international jurisprudence .
- Public Capital Investments –Private investments to be encouraged .Rs10.68 lakh crore to be an estimated effective capital expenditure of government in 2022-2023.
- Digital Rupee-Digital Rupee to be introduced by Reserve Bank of India in 2022-23.
- Providing Greater Fiscal space to states –Budget for capital investments to be increased from Rs.10,000 crore to Rs.15,000 crore ,fiscal deficit of 4% of GSDP to be allowed of which 0.5% will be tied to power sector reforms . Rs.1 lakh crore to be allocated to assist states in speeding up overall investments in the economy. Fifty year interest free loans ,over above normal borrowings .
PART –B
DIRECT TAXES
- Aim- Stable and predictable tax regime
- New updated returns –Filing of updated return on payment of additional tax,assessing of income tax missed out earlier ,can be filed within two years from the end of the relevant assessment year.
- Cooperative societies – Alternate minimum tax and surcharge to be reduced to 15% and 7% for those having income of more than Rs.1 crore upto 10 crores .
- Incentives for start ups- Earlier the period of incorporation was valid upto 31.03.2022 but now it got extended upto one year that is till 31.03.2023.
- Incentives under concessional tax regime- Last day for the commencement of manufacturing and production under section 115BAB extended by one year thatis upto 31st march 2024.
- Scheme for taxation of virtual digital assets –Gift of virtual digital asset to be taxed in the hands of the recipient ,capturing of transaction details ,any income from transfer of any virtual digital assets to be taxed at the rate of the 30 percent,any loss in transfer of virtual digital assets cannot be recovered against any other income .
- Rationalize of surcharge – this programme includes encouraging of start ups ,surcharge on long term capital gains arising on transfer of any type of assets capped at 15%, surcharge on AOPs capped at 15%
INDIRECT TAXES
- Progress in GST –Tax payers appreciated for this growth.
- Special Economic Zones –Custom administration of these zones to become fully IT driven and function on the Customs National Portal from 30th September 2022.
- Project Imports and Capital goods – Application of moderate tariff of 7.5% on imports for the promotion of domestic sector and “Make in India”. Exceptions include machineries which are not produced in india .
- Customs reforms and duty rate changes –During the covid19 pandemic ,customs formations have done wonderful frontline work against all odds so faceless customs have been fully established.
- Electronics –domestic production of electronic items to be encouraged .
- Gems and Jewellery- custom duty to be reduced on these items and to give a boost to gems and jewellery sector , facilitating export of jewellery exports through e-commerce .
- Chemicals –Custom duties to be imposed on certain chemicals and duty to be raised on sodium cyanide .
- MSME – Custom duty exemption of steel scrap to be extended for one year . Exemption on tools and implements manufactured in India for agriculture sector .Measures being taken to control prevailing high prices of metals in public interest .
- Exports- To reduce exports duty is being reduced on certain inputs and exemptions are being imposed on some items.
- Tariff measure to encourage blending fuel- Xxcise duty of Rs2 per litre to be imposed on unblended fuel from 1st October,2022.
LIST OF THE THINGS THAT WILL BECOME COSTLIER AND CHEAPER IN THE UPCOMING FINANCIAL YEAR :-
Cheaper things :-
-clothes,gem stones and diamond ,imitation jewellery, mobile phones ,mobile phone chargers ,custom duties to be reduced on chemicals needed for petroleum products, certain chemicals including methanol .
Costlier things :-
All imported items ,duty on umbrellas to be increased.
IMPACTS OF THE BUDGET 2022:-
BUDGET 2022 focuses more on private investments ,companies and improvement of the technology to accelerate the economic growth. This might cause disappointment among the middle class people or the ones who could hardly afford two days meal as with more of the privatization prices of the things may increase .
As Rahul Gandhi said that the budget 2022-2023 does not contain any benefits for the middle class people ,the salaried ones ,the poors ,youth and micro and small enterprise as Nirmala Sitharaman did not give any new income tax slabs .
The budget is also being criticized by common man as during the times of pandemic the unemployment rate has increased so much and people were expecting it to be the priority of the budget planning but the financial minister did not work much on this problem.
The positive point in the budget was that it increased the allocation of budget for the education system so that all the loses that happened during the pandemic times can be recovered .
Though the allocation of expenses in the health sector got deducted but its appreciable that government Is going to focus more on the mental health of the people as it was the most affected thing during the times of pandemic.
In The budget 2022-2023 , the government has mentioned that the funds for the sports would increase .
Tax slabs remains unchanged and this thing is being criticized by some people as they were expecting to get new slabs with reduced taxes but they need to understand that during the times of pandemic the inflanatory gap has increased so in such situations taxes can’t be reduced and government should be appreciated for not increasing the taxes.
Domestic manufacturing and “Make In India ” is being encouraged by imposing high taxes on imports . This would help our country to become self sufficient and self dependent .
The BUDGET 2022-2023 is well planned and promises so many benefits in the future and government is expected to fulfill those.
[1] Government Budgeting available at www.clearias .com last visited on the february 5,22
[2] Overview and steps involved in budgeting process available at www.timesofIndia.com last visited on february5,22
[3] Indian budget available at www.indiabudget.com last visited on February 7,22
Author: Anjanpreet Kaur
Juris Centre 