Union Budget 2022 : Women-Centric Schemes Announced To Boost Nari Shakti

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting the Union Budget 2022 in Parliament today ( 1 February, 2022). Her signature bahi khata has been replaced by a tablet which has all the documents. It was wrapped in a red-coloured cover with the national emblem emblazoned on it. She said that India's growth is estimated to be at 9.27% adding that the budget will benefit youth, women, farmers, SC, ST... and shall be guided by PM Gati Shakti master plan.

Here are the important announcements made for Union Budget 2022.

Job creation

• Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for achieving Aatmanirbhar Bharat will create 60 lakh new jobs and additional production of 30 lakh crore during next Keycap digit five years.
• Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) promotion task force to be set up to suggest ways to employ youth in the sector and build domestic capacity for serving our markets and meet the global demand

Transportation

• Prioritisation of multimodal connectivity between mass transport and railway stations.
• Design of metro systems including civil structures will be standardized for Indian conditions and needs to improve connectivity.
• National Highway network to be expanded by 25,000 km in 2022-23.
• Issuance of e-passports with embedded chips and futuristic tech to be introduced in 2022-23

Agriculture

• Encouragement will be given to chemical-free natural farming across the country.
• Syllabi of agricultural universities to be revised to make it effective for modern-day agriculture.
• Promotion of Kisan Drones for crop assessment, digitization of land records, spraying of insecticides.
• NABARD to finance startups for agriculture and rural enterprise.

Education

• Steps taken to provide supplementary education in regional languages for classes 1 to 12 include expansion of 'One class, one TV channel' program of PM eVIDYA from 12 to 200 TV channels.
• Select ITIs in all states to offer courses for skilling

Health

• Rolling out of an open platform for the National Digital Health Ecosystem comprising digital registries of health providers and health facilities, unique health identity and universal access to health facilities.
• A national tele mental health progamme will be launched to cope with mental health crisis India is witnessing during the pandemic.
• 60,000 crore allocated for providing access to tap water to 3.8 crore households.

Housing 

Defence

• In a bid to promote Aatmanirbharta and reduce dependence on imports of defence equipment, 68% of the capital procurement budget for Defence to be reserved for domestic industry.

Finance and Tax

• Issuance of Digital rupee using blockchain and other technologies by RBI to give a big boost to the economy.
• Taxpayers can to file an updated return as per a new provision. Updated return can be filed within 2 years from the end of the relevant assessment year
• Income from transfer of digital assets will be taxed at 30%. Recipient to be taxed if the virtual digital asset is a gift.
• Reduction of customs duty on cut & polished diamonds, gems to 5%
• Annuity and lumpsum received to parents or guardians attaining 60 years during lifetime of the disabled person will be eligible for tax relief
• No changes in I-T slabs for salaried employees.

Entrepreneurs