AS was expected from an election year, the union government has offered tax relaxation to people in budget 2023-24. There will be no tax on income up to Rs 7 lakh a year, up from Rs 5 lakh. The government has increased agricultural credit target to Rs 20 lakh crore and raised the allocation for PM Awas Yojna by 66 per cent to over Rs 79,000 crore.
In another important announcement that directly concerns the common man, the government has declared the Permanent Account Number as a common identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies. Similarly, the KYC process will be simplified and a one-stop update of identity will be established through Digilocker service and Aadhaar.
The finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the budget will focus on ‘Amrit Kaal’, which means a highly auspicious time to begin any new work. The government has identified the Amrit Kaal as the next 25-year period during which India will go from India@75 to India@100. So the budget, according to the finance minister, marks the blueprint to steer the Indian economy over the next 25 years.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a televised address that the budget in the 75th year of independence would lay a strong foundation for building a developed India. The PM said that the government has taken several steps to make the lives of women, in rural and urban areas, easy, adding the pecial savings scheme will be started to empower women in households.
However, the opposition has expectedly expressed disappointment over the budget. Congress has said that the budget was yet another example of “Over Promise and Under Deliver.” Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said that the union government doesn’t deliver on budgetary proposals. The government has also been accused of ignoring “welfare schemes” and issues such as the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers, employment, and youth. The activist, psephololgist and politician Yogendra Yadav has accused the government of slashing the outlay for education and health.
The budget 2023-24 has come at a time when India’s economy is doing better than most other economies in the world. The International Monetary Fund has called India a bright spot while predicting that global growth will dip from an expected 3.4 percent in 2022 to 2.9 percent in 2023, then increase to 3.1 percent in 2024. On the other hand, according to the Economic Survey released by the union government a day ahead of the Union Budget. India’s economic growth is forecast to be 6.5 percent in fiscal 2024 compared to 7 percent in the current fiscal. The projection is by and large similar to the one provided by multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, the IMF, and the ADB and by the Reserve Bank of India domestically. The budget will hopefully facilitate the economic growth, helping India retain its position as one of the world’s fastest growing economies in the world.
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