Youth Employment
Five schemes - facilitating employment, skilling and other opportunities for 4.1 crore youth over a five-year period with a central outlay of ₹2 lakh crore
All these schemes will, however, need to be weighed against the backdrop of the fact that India needs to, on average, generate 78.5 lakh non-farm jobs annually until 2030
as the Chief Economic Adviser highlighted in his Economic Survey, largely to absorb the workforce exiting agriculture.
Support for MSMEs
MSMEs in the manufacturing sector obtain loans to finance their purchases of machinery and equipment without collateral or a third-party guarantee
Budget’s proposals for the key employment-providing sector have been tailored to ease their access to debt financing and working capital
It also aims at business opportunities as potential suppliers to a wider pool of central public sector enterprises and large corporates.
Tax Relief for Middle Class
In a bid to entice more taxpayers to wholeheartedly embrace the new Income-Tax regime, the standard deduction has been raised
Tax slabs with their relevant tax rates revised so as to leave a little more money in the hands of the salaried, post taxes.
Pensioners are also set to benefit by a marginal increase of ₹10,000 in the deduction allowed on family pensions.
Fiscal Consolidation
Fiscal Deficit proposed to be pared to 4.9% of GDP.
To achieve this fiscal goal - paring spending on several social sectors including school and higher education that saw cuts in their shares of Budget outlays.
The most egregious reduction in share of spending on the rural job guarantee scheme — MGNREGA — with the Budget Estimate pegging the spending on the scheme at a nine-year low share of 1.78% of overall outlay
Subsidies too across the board, from fertilizers to food and petroleum have been pared.
Political Considerations
Political compulsions, as expected, resulted in significant allocations for Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, the States with the BJP’s crucial allies in power
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