Budget 2022 and Updates!

FM Nirmala Sitharaman presents Union Budget 2022!

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman begins her budget today.  The first part of the budget session of parliament will be held from January 31 to February 11 and the second part will take place from March 14 to April 8.

This is the fourth straight union budget when the Finance Minister presents financial statements and tax proposals for the fiscal year 2022-23(April 2022- March 2023).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives for the Union cabinet meeting. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Union Home minister Amit Shah, Railway communications and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi and others arrive at the parliament for the Union cabinet meeting ahead of presenting the budget 2022.

While presenting the budget, the Finance Minister said, the country is expected to grow at 9.27 percent in the coming year.

With a focus on four pillars of development — inclusive development, productivity enhancement, energy transition, and climate action — the Budget gives a blueprint of the economy from India at 75 to India at 100.

•Implementation of Ken Betwa Linking project at an estimated cost of Rs. 44,605 crore to be taken up:

-Irrigation benefits to 9.0 lakh hectare farm land

-Drinking water to 62 lakh people

-103 MW hydropower

-27 MW solar power generation

Rs. 1,400 crores in 2022-23 allocated

•Required spectrum auction for 5G rollout to be conducted in FY 22-23.

•Fund to be facilitated through NABARD to finance Startups for Agriculture and rural enterprise, relevant for farm produce value chain. Startups will support FPOs, provide technology to Farmers: FM

•To promote a shift to the use of public transport in urban areas…special mobility zones with zero fossil fuel policy to be introduced…Considering space constraints in urban areas, a ‘Battery Swapping Policy’ will be brought.

•1-Class-1-TV Channel to be implemented to provide supplementary education to children to make up for the loss of formal education due to Covid.

•E-passports to be rolled out in FY 22-23 to make processes easier, says FM.

•100 percent of post offices to come under core banking system, allowing online transfer between post offices and bank accounts through UPI, net banking, etc.

•Housing projects allotted Rs 48,000 cr for FY23 under PM Awas Yojana scheme. Rs 60,000 crore allocated to cover 3.8 cr households for tap water.

•‘Gati Shakti’ master plan for expressways to be formulated this FY. The government will expand highways by 25,000 km in FY23. Urban transport to be connected to the Railways.

•Chemical-free natural farming will be promoted throughout the country with a focus on farmers’ land in 5 km wide corridors along the river Ganga, in the first stage.

•ECLGS guarantee cover increased by another Rs 50,000 crore. EGGS is to be extended up to March 2023 because of a pandemic.

•One product, one railway station will be popularised, 400 new Vande Bharat trains to be introduced.

(This is a developing story)