“The Union Budget 2023, presented by Mrs. Nirmala Sitaraman today highlights India’s ambitious growth vision. This is a progressive budget that emphasises inclusive growth, sustainable development, harnessing the power of new-age technologies, business reforms, green growth and empowerment of MSMEs, farmers, youth and women. Despite of global recession and the Russia – Ukraine war, India demonstrated an impressive 7% GDP growth in fiscal 2023. The fiscal deficit for FY23 is estimated at 6.4% of GDP while the fiscal deficit target for FY24 is pegged at 5.9%. This reduction will pave the way for the country’s robust economic growth.
In her 5th consecutive budget, the Finance Minister highlighted the role of new-age technologies such as AI, IoT, 5G and Robotics in technological advancement. Announcements of setting up Centers of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence and 100 labs for developing apps using 5G services, roll out of phase 3 of the eCourt’s project, and National Digital Library for children and adolescents etc. will trigger demand for IT and datacentre solutions. The Finance Minister also announced relief on Customs Duty on the import of certain parts & inputs like a camera lens and continued the concessional duty on lithium-ion cells for batteries for another year. It will help boost local manufacturing of mobile phones and drive mobile penetration in rural India.
The Finance Minister also announced a slew of measures for ease of doing business such as the reduction of more than 39,000 compliances and decriminalisation of more than 3,000 legal provisions. Also, PAN will be used as a common identifier for all Digital Systems of specified government agencies. The Union government will set up a DigiLocker digital document storage capability to enable the storage of documents digitally and ease the process of digital application of credit for MSMEs. This will encourage the thriving startup ecosystem and also attract global players to invest in India. The development of 50 new airports and helipads will aid seamless connectivity.”
