A Budget that provides relief and impetus at the same time

Relief at last. And it required an impending general election and Assembly elections to nine States including the big ones like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Telangana and Chhattisgarh with 110 Lok Sabha Constituencies (in the last five mentioned). Call it an election Budget or a pragmatic one, this brings much relief to various sections. The salaried are the most elated of course.

The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a big ticket budget ahead of next year's general elections which included huge capital outlay in infrastructure and agri sectors and reworked tax slabs in a relief to the middle class. For the ruling BJP it is essential that it curbs anti-incumbency and tackle inflation to counter the Opposition campaign. No doubt, it is not facing a united Opposition as usual but it is wary of the incumbency issues and internal disputes within the party that could damage its performance.

The government has outlined seven priority areas in the last complete budget before next year's general elections. These areas are "inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector". In the next fiscal, capital investment outlay will be raised by 33% to Rs 10 lakh crore -- which would be 3.3 per cent of the GDP in 2023-2024 fiscal, the finance minister said. That is the long term plan the good of which could be debated.

With an immediate eye on the unhappy middle class and the salaried sections, the Centre opted for a big push for income tax relief ahead of an election year by reworking the income tax slabs in the new tax regime and increased the rebate limit to Rs 7 lakh a year -- up from Rs 5 lakh. There was good news for senior citizens too, with the investment cap for the Monthly Income Scheme and Senior Citizens' Saving Scheme being raised.

Bharat was also not neglected by the government and the agricultural credit target has been increased to Rs 20 lakh crore and in another populist measure, allocation for PM Awas Yojna increased by 66 per cent to over Rs 79,000 crore. Opposition ruled States may not be happy with these moves as it downsizes their criticism however vocal they might be against the same.

The Railways would be the happiest as its long pending demand for sufficient funds has been met in this budget with an outlay of Rs 2.4 lakh crore -- the highest in almost a decade and four times the last year's budget. "This is about nine times the outlay made in 2013-14," Nirmala said, comparing it with the last year of the Congress-led UPA governance. With a focus on switching to green fuel, the government is targeting 5 MT of Green Hydrogen production by 2030, Sitharaman said.

For ease of business and to settle commercial disputes, the government will bring another dispute resolution scheme under Vivad Se Vishwas-2. Now onwards PAN becomes a common identifier for all digital systems of specified government agencies tightening the screws around the black money further. Over the next three years, the government will recruit 38,800 teachers for Ekalavya Model Residential Schools.

The Economic Survey of 2022-23 came as a questionable document in fact a day ahead of the Budget with not many serious economic issues being discussed. The slew of announcements during the budget and reduction of certain customs duty and sops for agriculture more than made up for it.