Union Budget highlights that Agriculture, MSME, Investment, and Exports are engines in the journey to Viksit Bharat using reforms as fuel, guided by the spirit of inclusivity.
The budget announced ‘Prime Minister Dhan-Dhaanya Krishi Yojana’ in partnership with states covering 100 districts to increase productivity, adopt crop diversification, augment post-harvest storage, improve irrigation facilities, and facilitate the availability of long-term and short-term credit.
Read in Hindi: भारत की विकास यात्रा में यूं लगेंगे चार ‘इंजन’...
A comprehensive multi-sectoral ‘Rural Prosperity and Resilience’ programme will be launched in partnership with states to address underemployment in agriculture through skilling, investment, technology, and invigorating the rural economy. The goal is to generate ample opportunities in rural areas, with a focus on rural women, young farmers, rural youth, marginal and small farmers, and landless families.
Union Finance Minister announced that the Government will launch a 6-year ‘Mission for Aatmanirbharta in Pulses’ with a special focus on Tur, Urad and Masoor. Central agencies will be ready to procure these three pulses, as much as offered during the next four years from farmers.
The Budget has outlined measures for the Comprehensive Programme for Vegetables and Fruits, the National Mission on High Yielding Seeds, and a five-year Mission for Cotton Productivity amongst other measures to promote agriculture and allied activities in a major way.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the increase in loan limits from Rs.3-5 lakh for loans taken through Kisan Credit Cards under the modified interest subvention scheme.
FM described MSMEs as the second power engine for development as they constitute 45 per cent of our exports. To help MSMEs achieve higher efficiencies of scale, technological upgradation and better access to capital, the investment and turnover limits for classification of all MSMEs enhanced to 2.5 and two times, respectively. Further, steps to enhance credit availability with guarantee cover have also been announced.
FM also announced the launch of a new scheme for five lakh women, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes first-time entrepreneurs. This will provide term loans up to Rs.2 crore during the next five years.
The government will also implement a scheme to make India a global hub for toys representing the 'Made in India' brand. The government will set up a National Manufacturing Mission covering small, medium and large industries for furthering ‘Make in India’.
Defining Investment as the third engine of growth, the Union Minister prioritized investment in people, economy and innovation.
Under the investment in people, she announced that 50,000 Atal Tinkering Labs will be set up in Government schools in the next five years.
Broadband connectivity will be provided to all Government secondary schools and primary health centres in rural areas under the Bharatnet project.
Bharatiya Bhasha Pustak Scheme will be implemented to provide digital-form Indian language books for school and higher education.
Five National Centres of Excellence for Skilling will be set up with global expertise and partnerships to equip our youth with the skills required for ‘Make for India, Make for the World’ manufacturing.
A Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for Education will be set up with a total outlay of 500 crore.
The government will arrange for Gig workers’ identity cards, their registration on the e-Shram portal and healthcare under PM Jan Arogya Yojana.
Under the investment in the Economy, Infrastructure-related ministries will come up with a 3-year pipeline of projects in PPP mode.
An outlay of Rs.1.5 lakh crore was proposed for the 50-year interest-free loans to states for capital expenditure and incentives for reforms.
She also announced the second Asset Monetization Plan 2025-30 to plough back capital of Rs 10 lakh crore in new projects.
The Jal Jeevan Mission was extended till 2028 with a focus on the quality of infrastructure and Operation & Maintenance of rural piped water supply schemes through ‘Jan Bhagidhari’.
The government will set up an Urban Challenge Fund of Rs.1 lakh crore to implement the proposals for ‘Cities as Growth Hubs’, ‘Creative Redevelopment of Cities’ and ‘Water and Sanitation’.
Under the investment in Innovation, an allocation of ₹20,000 crore is announced to implement a private sector-driven Research, Development and Innovation initiative.
FM proposed a National Geospatial Mission to develop foundational geospatial infrastructure and data which will benefit urban planning.
The budget proposes the Gyan Bharatam Mission, for survey, documentation and conservation of more than one crore manuscripts with academic institutions, museums, libraries and private collectors. A National Digital Repository of Indian knowledge systems for knowledge sharing is also proposed.
FM Sitharaman defined Exports as the fourth engine of growth and said that jointly driven by the Ministries of Commerce, MSME, and Finance; the Export Promotion Mission will help MSMEs tap into the export market. She added that a digital public infrastructure, ‘BharatTradeNet’ for international trade was proposed as a unified platform for trade documentation and financing solutions.
The Finance Minister mentioned that support will be provided to develop domestic manufacturing capacities for our economy’s integration with global supply chains. She also announced that the government will support the domestic electronic equipment industry in leveraging the opportunities related to Industry 4.0. A National Framework has also been proposed for promoting Global Capability Centres in emerging tier-2 cities.
The government will facilitate the upgradation of infrastructure and warehousing for air cargo including high-value perishable horticulture produce.
Defining reforms as the fuel to the engine, FM said that over the past 10 years, the Government had implemented several reforms for the convenience of taxpayers, such as faceless assessment, taxpayers charter, faster returns, almost 99 per cent returns being on self-assessment, and Vivad se Vishwas scheme. Continuing with these efforts, she reaffirmed the commitment of the tax department to ‘trust first, scrutinize later’.
Union Finance Minister proposed changes across the length and breadth of the financial landscape in India to ease compliance, expand services, build a strong regulatory environment, promote international and domestic investment, and de-criminalisation of archaic legal provisions.
The Union Finance Minister proposed to raise the Foreign Direct Investment limit for the insurance from 74 to 100 per cent, to be available for those companies that invest the entire premium in India.
Sitharaman proposed a light-touch regulatory framework based on principles and trust to unleash productivity and employment. She proposed four specific measures to develop this modern, flexible, people-friendly, and trust-based regulatory framework for the 21st century.
Reiterating the commitment to stay the course for fiscal consolidation, the Union Finance Minister stated that the Government endeavours to keep the fiscal deficit each year such that the Central Government debt remains on a declining path as a percentage of the GDP and the detailed roadmap for the next six years has been detailed in the FRBM statement. Sitharaman stated that the Revised Estimate 2024-25 of fiscal deficit is 4.8 per cent of GDP, while the Budget Estimates 2025-26 is estimated to be 4.4 per cent of GDP.
For FY 2025-26, the Union Finance Minister stated that the total receipts other than borrowings and the total expenditure are estimated at ₹34.96 lakh crore and ₹50.65 lakh crore respectively. The net tax receipts are estimated at ₹28.37 lakh crore.
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