Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented on Wednesday, February 1 final full budget of the Narendra Modi government before the 2024 general elections. The minister announced several new initiatives, revised income tax slabs and customs duty, and concessions for agriculture and energy transition.
The Union Budget 2023-24 document also listed new allocations for key welfare schemes that drive socio-economic development. Here is a roundup of changes in the budgetary allocation for some of the key schemes-
MANREGA: The government slashed the budget of its flagship rural employment scheme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), by nearly 32% compared to the revised estimate of ₹89,400 for the scheme in the current year.
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Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) was passed in 2005 and aims to enhance the livelihood security of households in rural areas. Under it, MGNREGS is a demand-driven scheme that guarantees 100 days of unskilled work per year for every rural household, covering all districts in the country, leaving 100% of the urban population in the country.
Food Subsidy: The Center has allocated a little over ₹2 lakh crore for food subsidy under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) – this includes money for the Food Corporation of India, funds for decentralized procurement of food grains by state agencies, and other logistics costs Are. From January 1, 2023, the Center had decided to provide 5 kg free foodgrains per month for one year starting January 2023 to 81.35 crore beneficiaries of NFSA, instead of them getting the subsidized amount of Rs 3 per kg rice . , ₹2 kg of wheat and ₹1 kg of coarse grains as is usually done.
In December it was announced that the government was ending the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), which provided an additional 5 kg of free food per month to NFSA beneficiaries after it was launched as an emergency measure in response to COVID-19. grain was provided. pandemic in April 2020 and has received several extensions since then. In a normal year, without the COVID disruptions, the Centre’s food subsidy bill due to NFSA would have been around ₹2 lakh crore, similar to the newly announced allocation, but PMGKAY had effectively doubled that amount for the past two years.
Jal Jeevan Mission: The Center increased its budgetary allocation for the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) or the National Rural Drinking Water Mission by nearly 27% to ₹70,000 crore from the current year’s revised estimate of ₹55,000 crore. Jal Jeevan Mission The target is to provide safe and sufficient drinking water to all households in rural India through individual household tap connections by 2024.
The Ministry of Jal Shakti tweeted last week that the government has provided tap water connections to 11 crore rural households under the JJM scheme. Data from the ministry’s dashboard shows that 56% of the targeted 19.3 crore households have been covered.
The total financial outlay of the scheme is around Rs 3.60 lakh crore, with the Center funding 50% of the cost with states and union territories, except union territories without legislatures, where it foots the entire bill, and northeastern and Himalayan states and includes the states. Union Territories with legislature, where it funds 90% of the bill.
Ayushman Bharat-PMJAY: The budget for the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) – the National Public Health Insurance Fund – saw an increase of nearly 12% at ₹7,200 crore as compared to the revised estimates of ₹6,000 crore for the current year.
Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY is a health insurance scheme launched in 2018, which aims to provide health cover of Rs. 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. It aims to cover over 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable households (or 50 crore beneficiaries) comprising below 40% of the Indian population. Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya had said in December 2022 that so far 4.5 crore people have been listed under this scheme.
PM-Kisan: The allocation for the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-Kisan) scheme was the lowest in five years and was the same as the revised estimates for the current year at ₹60,000 crore. PM-Kisan is a flagship central scheme that was launched in 2019 to transfer ₹6,000 per year in three installments of ₹2,000 each to eligible farmer families.
Presenting the Union Budget on Wednesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman informed that the government has made a total cash transfer of ₹2.2 lakh crore to about 11 crore farmers under the PM-Kisan scheme.
PM-Nutrition: The government has allocated a budget of Rs 11,600 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman or the new version of the mid-day meal scheme for 2023-24. This is 9.37% lower than the current year’s revised estimate of ₹12,800.
In 2021, renaming of mid-day meal Scheme to provide hot cooked meals to 11.8 crore government school students of classes 1 to 8, Center also decided to extend the scheme to 24 lakh children studying in Balvatika, the pre-primary section of government schools from 2022-23 Was.
National Education Mission: A total of Rs 38,965 crore has been allocated to the National Education Mission for 2023-24, which is 19.44% higher than the revised estimate of Rs 32,612 crore for the current year. The Mission is an umbrella scheme integrating major schemes related to education, so that education is provided holistically and without segmentation from pre-primary to class 12. This includes Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and schemes for secondary and higher education under the Right to Education. For teacher training and adult education.
PMAY: The Center allocated ₹79,590 crore to the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), which is 3.19% more than the Revised Estimates for the current year and 66% more than the Budget Estimates. The objective of PMAY is to construct houses in both urban and rural areas. PMAY-Gramin (Rural) was launched in November 2016 with a target of completing 2.7 crore houses and PMAY-Urban was launched in June 2015 with a target of constructing 1.2 crore houses.
National Social Assistance Programme: The budget allocated ₹9,636 to the National Social Assistance Program (NSAP), which provides monthly pension support to the elderly, widows and persons with disabilities.
Development of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes: The budget allocated Rs 4,295 crore and Rs 9,409 crore for umbrella programs for the development of Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste communities, respectively. While the ST development allocation saw an increase of about 10%, the SC program funding increased by about 22% as compared to the Revised Estimates for the current year.