Highlights of Budget 2024-25 presented by the Union Finance Minister, Mrs. Nirmala Sithraman in Parliament on February 1.

Budget Estimates 2024-25:

• • Total receipts other than borrowings: Rs. 32.07 lakh crore.
  • Total expenditure: Rs. 48.21 lakh crore.
  • Net tax receipt: Rs. 25.83 lakh crore.
  • Fiscal deficit: 4.9 per cent of GDP.
• Government aims to reach a deficit below 4.5 per cent next year.
• The focus of  the Budget is on EMPLOYMENT, SKILLING, MSMEs and the MIDDLE CLASS.

Package of PM’s five schemes for Employment and Skilling

• S Prime Minister’s package of 5 schemes and initiatives for employment, skilling and other opportunities for 4.1 crore youth over a 5-year period.
  1. Scheme A – First Timers: One-month salary of up to Rs. 15,000 to be provided in 3 installments to first-time employees, as registered in the EPFO.
  2. Scheme B – Job creation in manufacturing: Incentive to be provided at specified scale directly, both employee and employer, with respect to their EPFO contribution in the first 4 years of employment.
  3. Scheme C – Support to employers: Government to reimburse up to Rs. 3,000 per month for 2 years towards EPFO contribution of employers, for each additional employee.
  4. New centrally-sponsored scheme for skilling
     • 20 lakh youth to be skilled over a 5-year period.
     • 1,000 Industrial Training Institutes to be upgraded in hub and spoke arrangements.
  5. New Scheme for Internship in  500 top companies to 1 crore youth in 5 years

Nine Budget Priorities in pursuit of ‘Viksit Bharat’:

1. 1. Productivity and resilience in agriculture
   2. Employment & skilling
   3. Inclusive human resource development and social justice
   4. Manufacturing & services
   5. Urban development
   6. Energy security
   7. Infrastructure
   8. Innovation, research & development and
   9. Next generation reforms

Priority 1: Productivity and resilience in agriculture

• Allocation of  Rs. 1.52 lakh crore for agriculture and allied sectors.
• New 109 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of 32 field and horticulture crops to be released for cultivation by farmers.
• 1 crore farmers across the country to be initiated into natural farming, with certification and branding in next 2 years.
• 10,000 need-based bio-input resource centres to be established for natural farming.
• Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for Agriculture to be implemented for coverage of farmers and their lands in 3 years.

Priority 2: Employment & skilling

• As part of the Prime Minister’s package, 3 schemes for ‘employment-linked incentive’ to be implemented – Scheme A – First Timers; Scheme B – Job creation in manufacturing;  Scheme C – Support to employers.
• To facilitate higher participation of women in the workforce,
  • Working women hostels and crèches to be established with industrial collaboration
  • Women-specific skilling programmes to be organized
  • Market access for women SHG enterprises to be promoted

Skill development

• New centrally -sponsored scheme for skilling under Prime Minister’s Package for 20 lakh youth over a 5-year period.
• Model skill loan scheme to be revised to facilitate loans up to
  7.5 lakh.
• Financial support for loans up to Rs. 10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions to be provided to youth who have not been eligible for any benefit under government schemes and policies.

Priority 3: Inclusive human resource development and social justice

Purvodaya

• Industrial node at Gaya to be developed along the Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor.
• Power projects, including a new 2400 MW power plant at Pirpainti, to be taken up at a cost of  `21,400 crore.

Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act

• • • Special financial support through multilateral development agencies of  Rs. 15,000 crore in the current financial year.
    • Industrial nodes at Kopparthy along Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor and at Orvakal along Hyderabad-Bengaluru Industrial Corridor.

Women-led development

• Total allocation of more than Rs. 3 lakh crore for schemes benefitting women and girls.

Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan

• Socio-economic development of tribal families in tribal-majority villages and aspirational districts, covering 63,000 villages benefitting 5 crore tribal people.

Bank branches in North-Eastern Region

• 100 branches of India Post Payment Bank to be set up in the North East region.

Priority 4: Manufacturing & services

Credit Guarantee Scheme for MSMEs in the manufacturing Sector

• A credit guarantee scheme without collateral or third-party guarantee in term loans to MSMEs for purchase of machinery and equipment.

Credit Support to MSMEs during stress period

• New mechanism to facilitate continuation of bank credit to MSMEs during their stress period.

Mudra loans

• The limit of Mudra loans under ‘Tarun’ category to be enhanced to Rs.20 lakh from Rs. 10 lakh for those who have successfully repaid previous loans.

Enhanced scope for mandatory onboarding in TReDS

• Turnover threshold of buyers for mandatory onboarding on the TReDS platform to be reduced from Rs.500 crore to Rs. 250 crore..

MSME units for food irradiation, quality & safety testing

• Financial support to set up 50 multi-product food irradiation units in the MSME sector .

E-Commerce export hubs

• E-Commerce export hubs to be set up under public-private-partnership (PPP) mode for MSMEs and traditional artisans to sell their products in international markets.

Critical Mineral Mission

• Critical Mineral Mission to be set up for domestic production, recycling of critical minerals and overseas acquisition of critical mineral assets.

Offshore mining of minerals

• Auction of the first tranche of offshore blocks for mining, building on the exploration already carried out.

Digital public infrastructure (DPI) applications

• Development of DPI applications in the areas of credit, e-commerce, education, health, law and justice, logistics, MSME, services delivery, and urban governance.

Priority 5: Urban development

Transit oriented-dvelopment

• Formulation of transit-oriented development plans and strategies to implement and finance 14 large cities above 30 lakh population.

Urban housing

• Investment of  Rs.10 lakh crore, including the central assistance of Rs. 2.2 lakh crore in next 5 years,  under PM Awas Yojana Urban 2.0 proposed to address the housing needs of 1 crore urban poor and middle-class families.

Street markets

• New scheme to support the development of 100 weekly ‘haats’ or street food hubs every year for the next 5 years in select cities.

Priority 6: Energy security

Energy transition

• Policy document on ‘Energy Transition Pathways’ to balance the imperatives of employment, growth and environmental sustainability to be brought out.

Pumped storage policy

• Policy for promoting pumped storage projects for electricity storage to be brought out.

Research and development of small and modular nuclear reactors

• Government to partner with the private sector for R&D of Bharat Small Modular Reactor and newer technologies for nuclear energy, and to set up Bharat Small Reactors.

Advanced Ultra Super Critical Thermal Power Plants

• Joint venture proposed between NTPC and BHEL to set up a full-scale 800 MW commercial plant using Advanced Ultra Super Critical (AUSC) technology.

Roadmap for ‘hard to abate’ industries

• Appropriate regulations for transition of ‘hard to abate’ industries from the current ‘Perform, Achieve and Trade’ mode to ‘Indian Carbon Market’ mode to be put in place.

Priority 7: Infrastructure

Infrastructure investment by Central Government

• 11,11,111 crore (3.4 % of GDP) to be provided for capital expenditure.

Infrastructure investment by state governments

• Provision of Rs. 1.5 lakh crore for long-term interest free loans to support states in infrastructure investment.

Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana (PMGSY)

• Launch of phase IV of PMGSY to provide all-weather connectivity to 25,000 rural habitations.

Irrigation and flood mitigation

• Financial support of  Rs. 11,500 crore to projects such as the Kosi-Mechi intra-state link and other schemes in Bihar.
• Government to provide assistance to Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Sikkim for floods, landslides and other related projects.

 Tourism

• Comprehensive development of Vishnupad Temple Corridor, Mahabodhi Temple Corridor and Rajgir.
• Assistance for development of temples, monuments, craftsmanship, wildlife sanctuaries, natural landscapes and pristine beaches of Odisha.

Priority 8: Innovation, research & development

• Anusandhan National Research Fund for basic research and prototype development to be operationalised.
• Financing pool of  Rs. 1 lakh crore for spurring private sector-driven research and innovation at commercial scale.

Space Economy

• Venture capital fund of  Rs. 1,000 crore to be set up for expanding the space economy by 5 times in the next 10 years.

Priority 9: Next generation reforms

Rural land-related acaions

• Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) or Bhu-Aadhaar for all lands
• Digitization of cadastral maps
• Survey of map subdivisions as per current ownership
• Establishment of land registry
• Linking to the farmers registry

Urban land-related actions

• Land records in urban areas to be digitized with GIS mapping.

Services to labour

• Integration of e-shram portal with other portals to facilitate such one-stop solution.
• Open architecture databases for the rapidly-changing labour market, skill requirements and available job roles.
• Mechanism to connect job-aspirants with potential employers and skill providers.