Union Budget 2023

For the banking sector which is seeing an increased credit offtake in the recent times, is expecting more business due to increased allocation for capital investment and also inflow of cash with the increase in rebate for tax payers under the Income Tax Act which is expected to bring them some low cost funds. While that is for the bankers, Sitharaman too had announcements for the investors and banking public.

The key announcement by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1 during her budget speech was welcomed by all including the Industry and experts. The minister said capital expenditure has thus increased to more than 2.2 times the expenditure of 2019-20 and it would be 2.9 per cent of the GDP in 2022-23.

An allocation of Rs 300.7 crore has been made in the budget for teaching, promoting and encouraging the youth in regional languages. It is 20 per cent higher than the previous year's allocation. On the other hand, for the IKS, the allocation has been increased by 100 per cent. According to the Union Education Ministry, the Central government has taken several steps to promote regional languages in educational institutions.

Speaking to mediapersons in Delhi, Vaishnaw said the Odisha government had demanded Rs 8,400 crore for development of railways in the state. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has allocated Rs 10,012 crore to the state, he said. The minister also announced that the 'Bande Metro' train will be introduced soon between Bhubaneswar and Puri.

According to Zook, the Budget was largely in line with Fitch Ratings expectations and did not significantly change the sovereign credit profile. India's fiscal deficit and government debt ratio are high relative to peer medians, but the government's emphasis on reducing the deficit helps to stabilise the debt ratio over the medium term, Zook remarked.

Some of the countries whose allocation has been reduced under this head include Bhutan, Afghanistan and Mauritius. At the same time, budget allocation for Bangladesh, Nepal, crisis-hit Sri Lanka, Mongolia and that of Eurasian, African and Latin American countries, have been hiked.

According to the Darjeeling Tea Association (DTA)'s principal advisor S. Mukherjee, the tea sector was probably the only industrial segment which was not spared even a word as regards to any industry stimulation package or subsidy.He pointed out that even the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee of Commerce & Industry for a one- time package for the revival of the tea sector in Darjeeling was also ignored.

In a research report, Emkay Global's insurance sector analysts Avinash Singh and Mahek Shah said the Rs 5 lakh cap is likely to affect growth of about 10 per cent premium base for HDFC Life Insurance and Max Life and about 5 per cent premium base for SBI Life Insurance and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.