With hopes in our eyes or without, with the ambitions fulfilled or not, with some relief given on our existing attempts or a bigger room allocated for our far-fetched yet realistic goals, the 2022 Indian Budget ignited many hopes while it may have extinguished many.
A budget is a mere reflection of country’s priorities and aspirations in a newer world.
But what happens if a few jargons can easily block our vision, clouding the very future that has been planned for more than a billion population and consequently the way we can help achieve it.
Not all of us can be apprised of the terms used in a budget, especially the current year’s and it becomes difficult to understand all those jargons used. That is absolutely okay but it will be quite helpful if there is a document to delve in deep.
Consolidating all such words from the budget this year and the generic ones used often, are provided here for an easy comprehension and a wider story.
Amrit Kaal:
The finance minister explained in her speech: “This Budget lays a futuristic ‘Amrit kaal’ for women, youth and marginalised communities, big public investment for infrastructure guided by PM Gati Shakti, productivity enhancement, energy transition and climate action and financing of investments”.
Amrit Kaal, a term taken from Vedic astrology, has been referred to the next 25 years starting from 75th Indian Independence to 100th, during which the country will aim to derive and deliver the best in every field.
Budget and Revised Estimate:
Budget estimate is the money set aside in budget for any ministry or a particular scheme for the upcoming financial year.
Revised Estimate refers to a mid-year review of any possible expenditure, keeping in view the trend of spending undertaken. It is not put to vote by the Parliament, and consequently, has no authority for expenditure i.e., any additional estimate for spending made under the Revised Estimates will need to be passed through the Parliament’s approval.
Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT):
It is the minimum amount of tax that a firm needs to pay, be it under zero tax slab. MAT in budget 2022-23 has been slashed down from 18.5% to 15%.
PM GatiShakti:
It is a transformative approach for country’s economic growth in tandem with the sustainable development through innovative ways, use of technology, and speedier implementation. This composes of seven engines, as per PIB: Roads, Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass Transport, Waterways, and Logistics Infrastructure.
In order to bring synergy to create the world-class transport infrastructure in the country, GatiShakti programme will strive to break the silos of departmentalism with better collaboration among all and swift decision making.
As per the budget FY23, energy transformation and climate action will help dictate the planned transformation.
Multimodal Logistics Park:
Led by National Highways Logistics Management Limited under the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH), these parks will strengthen and improve the country’s freight logistics sector and provide value-added services such as customs clearance, testing facilities, quarantine facilities in time of Covid etc.
It will root out considerable challenges like cutting freight and warehouse costs, reducing vehicular pollution or congestion on roads, to imbibe efficiency in our supply chains and be globally compatible. As per the Budget, contracts will be floated for establishment of Multimodal Logistics Parks at four locations through public-private partnership (PPP) mode.
Production-Linked Incentive (PLI):
The success of PLI might have been ascertained easily and earlier than needed but as per Finance Minister the PLI scheme introduced and extended to 14 sectors has the potential to create at least new 60 lakh (6 million) job opportunities and Rs 30 lakh crore valued products during the next five years.
It covers strategic and crucial sectors like mass electronics manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, solar EV modules, automobiles and its components, textile products etc.
To boost domestic manufacturing in the country and reduce import bills, the Union government brought a scheme that aims to offer incentives to companies on incremental sales of domestic goods.
In the current budget, Rs 19,500 crores have been allocated for manufacture of solar PV modules under PLI.
Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS):
It was announced as a part of Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan to help MSMEs cope up with the losses incurred because of the Pandemic.
Presenting the budget, FM announced: “ECLGS scheme to be extended till March 2023 and guarantee cover expanded by Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh crore.”
Eligibility for availing this relief requires a firm with turnover of up to Rs 250 crores and outstanding loans up to Rs 50 crores.
Unique Land Parcel Identification:
Termed as the ‘Aadhaar for land’, it composes of a 14-digit identification number allotted to every plot of land in the country that has been surveyed and documented. It is hoped to prevent land frauds, solve disputes especially occurring in rural regions and help India implement land ceiling and consolidation related reforms.
Sunrise Sectors:
In colloquial terms, it refers to those sectors of Industry those promise a future boom and are emerging using a new, innovative technology. For example: agriculture drones, sustainable plastic, renewable energy, custom alloys, climate action etc.
Battery-swapping Infrastructure:
A policy for facilitating Battery swapping Infrastructure will be brought forth for promotion and accessibility of Electric Vehicles, as announced in the budget.
Battery swapping arrangement is simply replacing the battery for an EV once it is drained, that can be done in just 10 minutes instead of long hours for charging but this technology is extremely capital intensive as battery is the most expensive part. Elon Musk’s Tesla has adopted battery swapping for their own EVs.