Union Budget 2022 – Live updates

Union Budget 2022-23 is being presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at 11 am. The budget for any year sets the tone for the performance of the economic growth and related factors like interest rates, inflation, etc. This is the fourth budget being presented by Ms Sitharaman. The budget speech generally ranges from 90 to 120 mins. Earlier the Union Budget was presented on the last working day of February at 5pm in the evening.  It was moved from 5pm to 11am and finally to the 01st of February to allow more time to prepare for implementation of the budget.

At a time when the Indian economy has somewhat recovered from Covid-19 impact and the rising inflation, the upcoming budget that will be tabled in Parliament has the entire nation’s hopes and expectations tied to it.

Watch our Union Budget Breakdown 2022-23 ft. Anshuman Sharma:

Live Announcements by Nirmala Sitharaman as Presenting

The Budget Speech begins – The FM has started with the budget presentation

Investment in infrastructure: Big public investment for modern infrastructure expected

PM Gati Shakti Master plan for Expressways – 25k kms of expressways to be developed in 2022-23

Railways to develop new products – Railways to develop new products to help local and small businesses

Vande bharat trains – 400 new Vande bharat trains to be introduced

Parvat Mala – Eco friendly and sustainable ways to improve connectivity and tourism in form of ropeway projects

Natural farming – Natural farming and chemical farming to be promoted. Support for millet products

Improved syllabi for Agri universities

Irrigation benefits for Ken Betwa belt

5 river links – Budget allocation for river linking finalised. Centre to provide support for implementation

MSP for farmers to be transferred directly in bank accounts

Hospitality sector – ECLGS will be extended upto March 2023, guarantee cover expanded

Focus on MSME – 6k cr to make MSME sector more resilient and competitive

Drone Shakti – For varied applications of using Drones.

Focus on Education:

Supplementary training in form of 1 class – 1 channel pgm in regional languages for Class 1-12.

High quality e-content in spoken languages .

Digital university to be provided for world-class learning experience. Built on network and spoke model

Focus on mental health – National tele mental health pgm introduced. – NIMHANS being nodal centre

Women focus schemes launched – New gen aaganwadis – 2L existing aaganwadis to be updated

PM Awas Yojana – 48K crs alloted

PM development initiative for North East – New fund for needs of North East sector with initial allocation of 1500 crs

Vibrant villages pgm introduced – For bringing the far flung villages into the mainstream. Additional funding is expected.

Post offices in to Core banking net

Fintech Focus

Encouraging the fintech

75 digital banking units to be set up in 75 districts

Focus use of payment platforms

Compliance focus

Minimum govt and max governance to continue in focus.

Ease of doing business 2.0 to be launched

E passports

Using embedded chip to be launched

Urban focus

Plan to steer a paradigm change for better urban planning

Support to state for town planning , design of mass transit projects

Centres of Excellence to come up

promote use of public tpt with focus on clean tech

Battery swapping policy to be brought out

EV efficiency in focus

Telecom focus – 5G tech – Spectrum auction to be conducted in 2022-23

Broadband for rural sectors

Promote RD & commeercialization to ensure mobile tech and resources as good as urban aread.

Bharat net project for laying of optic fibres in rural areas.

Export promotion – SEZ act to be replaced

Defence sector

Promote Aatmanirbharta

Defence R&D to be opened up

Pvt industries to be encouraged to collaborate with DRDO

Climate Change – Solar power 280k GW – Additional outlay proposed

Bio mass plants – Stubble burning to be avoided through Bio mass projects

Agro forestry to be promoted

Capital expenditure – Stepped up by 35.4% to 7.50L crore

Capital expenditure – 2.9% of the GDP

Green bonds: Govt mkt borrowings through Green bonds for green infrastructure

GIFT IFSC

International Courses in fintech, science, maths to be introduced at GIFT city

Intl arbitration agency to be set up

Venture Cap focus: 5.5L cr invested through Venture cap and Pvt equity last yr. An expert committee plan to take this further

Digital Rupee: Central Bank Digital Currency to be introduced for boost the economy based on blockchain and AI by RBI

Fiscal Management

39.45 L crs total expected expenditure.

Revised fiscal deficit 6.9% of GDP

The same for next fiscal is expected at 6.4% GDP f

Direct Taxes

• New provision to file updated returns within 2 yrs of the relevant AY under a payment
• Can declare missed out income
• Quoting a verse from Mahabharata
• Intends to bring more reforms

Corporate Taxes

Reduced MAT to Co-op societies to 15%

Surcharge reduced for income between Rs 1-10 cr

Parity between State & Central govt employees: Increase tax deduction limit from NPS contribution of State govt employees

Focus on startups: Start ups tax incentive period increased

Virtual Digital Assets

• Income from transfer of virtual digital assets to be taxed at 30%.
• Losses cannot be set off against any other assets
• TDS at 1%
• Gift of virtual assets also taxed in hands of recipients

Surcharge on AOPs: Capped at 15%

Health & Education Cess: Cannot be used as Business expenditure

No set-off of any loss on undetected income discovered during IT searches

Indirect Taxes

• Remarkable progress in GST
• Better compliance noticed
• Buoyant revenues
• Highest GST collected in Jan 2022 since introduction of GST

Custom Exemptions: 350 exemptions to be gradually phased out

Duty on Umbrellas increased

Duty exemption on steel scraps to continue

Blending of Fuel

A priority for Govt

Unblended fuel to attract duty from Oct 2022

The Budget Speech comes to an end!!!

Budget 2022-23 – Sectors in Focus

Taking into consideration the impact Covid has had on the economy, the focus this year will be to following sectors will be in focus and should see equal  on social spending and on sectors that will help in the growth of the economy.

• Infrastructure
• Hospitality
• Real Estate
• Agriculture
• Health Care
• Auto

Union Budget 2022 Highlights

Union Budget 2022 faced major challenges in terms of high unemployment rate due to the ongoing pandemic, higher inflation, and a higher debt to GDP. To address these, Finance Minister Sitharaman presented her fourth budget. As the FM highlighted ‘digital and technology’ integration across sectors, the stock markets across the country cheered by rising up several points. 

Here are the highlights of Union Budget 2022:

Budget allocation

• Projected fiscal deficit for FY23 is 6.4% of GDP.
• Capital expenditure outlay to be raised by 35.4% in 2022-23.
• Capital expenditure is estimated at Rs 10.68 lakh crore, which is 4.1% of GDP.
• States to be provided with Rs. 1 lakh crore interest-free loans of 50-years to further fund investments linked to PM Gati Shakti.

Virtual currency

RBI will be introducing the digital rupee based on blockchain technology starting from 2022-23.

Income Tax

• No change to personal income tax rates.
• Taxpayers can now update their returns filed within the past 2 assessment years for paying additional tax towards any omitted income.
• Surcharge on Long-term capital gains applicable on listed equity share units set at 15%.
• Transfer of long-term capital gains to be capped at 15%.
• Reduction in corporate surcharge from 12% to 7%.
• Revised Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) to 15% for co-operative societies.
• To align benefits for central and state government employees, the Finance Ministry announced an increase from 10% to 14% for employers’ contribution towards the National Pension Scheme (NPS) Tier -I account.
• Any surcharge and cess on income cannot be claimed as business expenditure.
• Losses brought forward cannot be adjusted against undisclosed income identified through any search or survey. 

Taxation on earnings from cryptocurrencies

• Any income earned through transfer of digital assets, including Cryptocurrencies, to be taxable at 30%. 
• Any loss on sale of digital assets cannot be adjusted against any other income. 
• Digital assets as gifts are taxable in the hands of the receiver. 
• No deductions will be applicable except the cost of acquisition of digital assets. 

Investment and sectoral allocation

• An expert committee to be set up for reviewing the regulatory framework surrounding venture capital.
• PM development initiatives specifically for the northeast are expected to be implemented for the North Eastern Council. This is aimed at aiding the livelihood of youth and women. 

Digital banking

• Introduction of online bill system central ministries to minimize delay in payment.
• Credit growth rises by Rs 5.4 lakh crore in current fiscal.

Internet connectivity

• 5G spectrum auction to start in 2022-23.
• Aim to provide internet connectivity to all villages and allow access to digital resources that are similar to urban areas.

Indirect taxes – GST & Customs

• No changes to GST rates.
• Customs duty on import of capital goods will attract an initial rate of 7.5% and concessions to be phased out.
• Approximately 350 exemptions to be phased out on import of certain chemicals, agri products, drugs, etc.
• Concession of import duty on parts of phone chargers, transformers, etc. This is mainly to boost local manufacturing.
• Exemption of customs duty on steel scrap extended by a year to aid MSMEs.
• Customs duty on imitation jewelry increased to discourage imports.
• Customs duty on methanol to be brought down.
• Customs duty on certain types of leather, packaging boxes brought down to boost exports.
• Customs duty is down to 5% for cut and polished diamonds and gems.
• To encourage fuel blending, additional excise duty at Rs. 2 per litre applicable on unblended fuel.

 Startups

• Startups can explore defense R&D opportunities
• Startups incorporated until March 31, 2023 can enjoy tax incentives for another year.
• Startups to be encouraged to facilitate ‘drone shakti’ for furthering drone usage.

Agriculture

• Launch of Hi-tech service delivery for farmers.
• Kisan Drones usage to be encouraged for crop assessment, land records digitization, and insecticides and nutrients spraying.
• To tap on sunrise opportunities like technology in agriculture, climate action, etc. the government will be promoting funds for blended finance.
• Funds facilitated by NABARD will be provided to finance startups engaged in agriculture and rural enterprise. 

Education

• Upgradation of 2 lakh Anganwadis across the country focused on improving child health.
• Digital university to support online education focused on ICT.
• Select ITIs to offer skilling courses.
• For all states to offer supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12, the ‘One class, one TV channel’ program as part of PM eVIDYA will now cover 200 TV channels from an earlier 12. 

MSME

• Launch of the next phase of ease of doing business, ease of living.
• To sectors that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, extension of ECLGS (Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme) was announced till Mar-23. Since 95% of ECLGS borrowers are MSMEs, this measure aims to continue the MSME sector hand holding, specifically the services sector. 

e-Vehicles and energy 

• FM announced allocation of Rs. 19,500 crore in production linked incentive for solar modules.
• Energy saving and efficiency initiative to be encouraged.
• To give a boost to the EV ecosystem, a battery-swapping policy will be introduced, specifically with interoperability standards.

e-Passport

• E-passports with futuristic technology to be introduced in 2022-23.
• The e-passport chip will carry 64 kilobytes of memory space with a capacity to store details of up to 30 visits.
• E-passport holder’s photograph and fingerprints to be saved in the chip.

Healthcare

• Digitization of registries of health providers and health facilities through an open platform as part of the National Digital Health Ecosystem. It will include a digital form of unique health identity to allow easy universal access to healthcare facilities.
• As the pandemic has resulted in a rise in mental health issues across the country, a national tele mental health programme to be initiated.

Infrastructure

• New rail products to be rolled out as part of ‘One Station – One Product’.
• Modernisation of infrastructure in the medium term by making use of the tech platform of Gati Shakti.
• The PM Gatishakti master plan focused on expressways will be designed in the next financial year, the scope of which will cover the seven main engines of economic transformation.

Housing and basic amenities

• 80 lakh households to be identified in 2022-23 for granting the benefit of affordable household scheme.
• Rs. 60,000 crore allocated towards providing tap water access to 3.8 crore households.

Conclusion

As the economy is reeling from the impact of the Omicron wave, the FM emphasized on the Budget’s ‘Sabka Prayaas’ for achieving a stronger growth. The expected GDP growth of the country is 9.2%, which is one of the highest among all economies. With strategic disinvestment plans, the government aims to gain better liquidity via privatization. Budget 2022 has been about a significant increase in public investment, capital expenditure, and overall digitization.