02.02.23 Budget 2023-24 in brief

1. Capital expenditure hiked by 33% to `10 lakh crore for infrastructure development for 2023-24 and will be at 3.3% of GDP.
2. Defence gets `5.94 lakh crore in Budget 2023-24, a jump of 13% over previous year.
3. Allocation for education hiked to `1.13 lakh crore, up by 8.3% from last year.
4. Health sector allocated `89,155 crore, a hike of around 13%.
5. Capital outlay for railways increased to highest-ever `2.40 lakh crore.
6. Allotment for agriculture and farmers’ welfare stands at around `1.15 lakh crore, a hike of around 4.6%
7. Allocation for the flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme cut by whopping 30%.
8. Personal income tax rebate limit increased to `7 lakh under new tax regime from previous `5 lakh.
9. Highest rate of income tax reduced to 39% from 42.74% at present, by reducing surcharge applicable on high net-worth individuals.
10. Government will target a budget deficit of 5.9% of GDP for FY24 as compared to 6.4% for current fiscal year. Fiscal deficit would be brought down to below 4.5% by 2025-26.
11. The government plans to borrow a record `15.4 lakh crore from dated securities in FY24 to meet its expenditure requirement to prop up the economy.
12. ‘Mahila Samman Saving Certificate’ new savings scheme for women with 7.5% fixed interest rate for 2 years.
13. Govt doubles deposit limit for Senior Citizen Savings Scheme to `30 lakh.
14. `1.96 lakh crore allocated to the Ministry of Home Affairs with a majority of the spending on Central Armed Police Forces such as CRPF and intelligence gathering
15. 66% hike in Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana outlay to `79,000 crore.
16. 30% TDS on net winnings in online games, existing threshold limit of `10,000 for TDS levy removed.
17. Cigarettes n Kitchen chimney n Imported bicycles, toys n Fully imported cars, EVs n Imitation jewellery get costlier.
18. Domestically-made TV sets n Shrimp feed n Seeds for lab-grown diamonds n Mobile phone parts n Raw material for EV industry gets cheaper.
19. Startups incorporated till Mar 2024 to get income tax benefits.
20. India reported 111 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 4,46,82,896