Budget 2023: 7 Key Sectors that were in focus

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget 2023 had something in store for all the key sectors of the economy. Through higher outlays and new schemes, the Budget aimed to provide a fillip to all important sectors from agriculture to green energy, and fintech.

Let’s look at a few sectors that were in focus in the Union Budget 2023.

Agriculture:

As had been expected, the Budget laid emphasis on boosting the priority farm sector. The Budget offered affordable solutions to help farmers tackle the many challenges they face. One such measure was the creation of an agriculture accelerator fund to transform the entire sector. The agricultural credit target has been increased to Rs 20 lakh crore with a special focus on areas like animal husbandry, fisheries, and dairy. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also allocated Rs 6,000 crore in the sector to support fish vendors, fishermen, and MSMEs.

Healthcare:

Union Budget 2023 also focused on the healthcare sector, particularly keeping in mind the challenges faced during the last couple of years due to Covid. The finance minister announced the setup of 157 new nursing colleges and ICMR labs that will be made available for private and public medical research. The Budget also aimed at boosting research and development within the pharmaceutical industry and other priority areas.

Real Estate:

The Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana, an initiative launched to help lower-income sections of the urban population avail of affordable housing, also received an additional outlay. The scheme will see an enhancement of 66 percent and exceed above Rs 79,000 crore. This step could be beneficial in not only helping lower socio-economic classes of society but also attracting potential homeowners to boost the real estate sector.

Railways:

The Union Budget for 2023 also placed the railways' sector on the priority list. The finance minister announced that the outlay for the Indian Railway budget will be around Rs 2.4 lakh crore. This figure is a massive jump, estimated to be nine times more than the outlay announced in 2013-2014.

Green Energy:

The FM also announced measures that placed importance on clean energy, setting aside Rs 35,000 crore as priority capital for energy transition. Additionally, there will be a green credit programme set up under the Environmental Protection Act. The Budget also announced a National Green Hydrogen mission with an outlay of Rs 19,700 crore to move to low-carbon energy and reduce the dependency on fossil fuel imports.

Also Read: Expectations from Union Budget 2023-24 in India?

MSME:

To provide support to the MSME sector, Union Budget 2023 announced a revamp of the credit guarantee scheme. The scheme will see an influx of Rs 9,000 crore in corpus and will come into effect on April 1, 2023. Plus, the new credit guarantee scheme will likely reduce the cost of credit for MSMEs by 1 percent point.

Fintech:

The Budget also contained a slew of measures regards the Fintech sector including financial support for the ongoing creation of digital public infrastructure. Additionally, while the scope of documents available in DigiLocker for individuals will be broadened, DigiLocker will also be set up for businesses and MSMEs. The PM Vikas scheme will also allow access to digital payments and social security.

Union Budget 2023 also contained changes to the tax regime and measures to improve conditions for various other sectors.

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