In this year’s Union budget, capital expenditure has increased for the third year in a row by 10 lakh crore (33 per cent). While the government hopes to increase private sector investment through this, it has not yielded the expected growth in the long term.
The robust 10.4 per cent second quarter FY23 growth camouflages the fact that real fixed assets of non-finance and manufacturing companies have actually shrunk in real terms (-4.9%/-6.3% YoY). Moreover, the government had spent Rs 22,000 crore less of what it had allocated for capital expenditure this fiscal.
The FM also announced a Rs 9,000 crore corpus as part of the MSME credit guarantee scheme which is supposed to provide respite to small enterprises and increase the ease of doing business.
The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana will be launched with targeted investment of Rs 6,000 crore to further enable activities of fishermen, fish vendors, and micro and small enterprises, improve value chain efficiencies and expand the market.
A mission for the welfare of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) was announced with a fund of Rs 15,000 crore allocated for the next three years to fuel the socioeconomic development of the group.
But according to Y Giri Rao, a tribal welfare activist who works with Vasundhara, an Odisha based NGO, “There is a need for a National Tribal Policy to define what development means for these communities and state how the funds will be used. Though this is a huge jump from the earlier Budget of Rs 250 crore allocated for the welfare of PVTGs in 2021-22, we need a policy for this group, not just schemes. There are 75 PVTGs in the country, but we do not know their individual and collective population.”
The Centre will also recruit 38, 800 teachers and support staff for 740 Eklavya Model residential schools serving 3.5 lakh tribal students.
The MGNREGA scheme saw its allocation drop by almost 33 per cent to about Rs 60,000 crore in the budget estimate of FY24 from the revised estimate of FY23. This budget is the lowest in the past two years (Rs 98,468 crore and Rs 89,400 crore for the year 2021-22 and 2022-23 respectively).
Over the past five years, about 21 per cent of the annual budget has been spent clearing the pending dues carried from previous years. In the financial year 2022-23 alone the pending dues were calculated to be Rs 16,070 crore until January 2023.
NREGA Sangharsh Mocha and People’s Action for Employment Guarantee (PAEG) had pressed a demand for the union government to allocate funds of Rs 2.72 lakh crore for the financial year 2023-24 considering the pending dues and the need to fulfill the employment need of 5.6 crore employees for 100 days for per person per household.
There would be almost no working days possible with the current budget allotment, a lot of which would be spent clearing dues, according to the group.
Under the programme component of the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) — which includes social mobilisation, community institution and capacity building, financial inclusion, livelihood promotion and convergence — the fund allocation has dropped from Rs 11,552 crore to Rs 9,494 crore.
In terms of grants-in-aid to Union Territories, the allotments have decreased from Rs 2,899 crore to Rs 2,794 crore.
In the 75 Ramsar sites of the country, Amrit Dharohar will be implemented over the next three years to encourag optimal use of wetlands and enhance biodiversity, carbon stock, eco-tourism opportunities and income generation for local communities.
The PM Vishwakarma Kaushal Vikas Yojna has been launched for traditional artisans and handicrafts. The scheme will provide them with a package of assistance by integrating them with the MSME chain, skill training, brand promotion, linkages with markets and digital payments. Additionally Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) 4.0 is to be launched to upskill youth over the next 3 years.