Goaltide Daily Current Affairs 2023
Current Affair 1:
Consitutional Perspective of BUDGET
The budget is a comprehensive document that outlines the government’s economic and fiscal policies for the next fiscal year. The budget is an annual financial statement that lays out the government’s proposed expenditures and revenues for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins on April 1st and ends on March 31st of the following year.
What are the Constitutional provisions ?
- Article 112(1) The President shall in respect of every financial year cause to be laid before both the Houses of Parliament a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India for that year, in this Part referred to as the “annual financial statement”.
- Article 112(2) The estimates of expenditure embodied in the annual financial statement shall show separately —
(a) the sums required to meet expenditure described by this Constitution as expenditure charged upon the Consolidated Fund of India; and
(b) the sums required to meet other expenditure proposed to be made from the Consolidated Fund of India, and shall distinguish expenditure on revenue account from other expenditure.
- Article 112(3) The following expenditure shall be expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of India—
(a) the emoluments and allowances of the President and other expenditure relating to his office;
(b) the salaries and allowances of the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the Council of States and the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the House of the People;
(c) debt charges for which the Government of India is liable including interest, sinking fund charges and redemption charges, and other expenditure relating to the raising of loans and the service and redemption of debt;
(d) (i) the salaries, allowances and pensions payable to or in respect of Judges of the Supreme Court; (ii) the pensions payable to or in respect of Judges of the Federal Court; (iii) the pensions payable to or in respect of Judges of any High Court which exercises jurisdiction in relation to any area included in the territory of India or which at any time before the commencement of this Constitution exercised jurisdiction in relation to any area included in 1[a Governor’s Province of the Dominion of India];
(e) the salary, allowances and pension payable to or in respect of the Comptroller and Auditor-General of India.
(f) any sums required to satisfy any judgment, decree or award of any court or arbitral tribunal;
(g) any other expenditure declared by this Constitution or by Parliament by law to be so charged
Debates regarding Budget
Current Affair 2:
Basics about Budget
Article 112 of the Constitution requires the President of India to cause the annual financial statement to be laid before the Parliament on the last day of February or the first working day thereafter. The term Budget is nowhere mentioned in the Constitution.
Article 114 of the Constitution requires the government to present a separate account of the receipts and expenditure of the Consolidated Fund of India, which includes the revenues of the central government and certain other funds, as well as all money received by the government through loans.
Article 266 of the Constitution requires the government to credit all revenues received by it, including taxes and other revenues, into the Consolidated Fund of India, unless otherwise provided by law.
Article 266(2) of the Constitution requires the government to withdraw money from the Consolidated Fund of India only after it has been authorized by a law passed by the parliament. This ensures that the government cannot withdraw money from the Consolidated Fund without the approval of the parliament.
Article 270 of the Constitution requires the government to present a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of each state government, which is called State Budget.
Article 272 of the Constitution requires the government to transfer certain specified taxes and duties to the states and union territories.
Fiscal Deficit (FD) is the adverse fiscal balance which is a difference between the Revenue Receipts Plus Non-Debt Capital Receipts (NDCR) i.e. total of the non-debt receipts and the total expenditure. Fiscal Deficit is reflective of the total borrowing requirement of Government.
Revenue Deficit (RD) refers to the excess of revenue expenditure over revenue receipts.
Effective Revenue Deficit (ERD) is the difference between Revenue Deficit and Grant-in-Aid for Creation of Capital Assets. Primary Deficit is measured as Fiscal Deficit less interest payments.
Effective Capital Expenditure (Eff-Capex) refers to the sum of Capital Expenditure and Grants-in-Aid for Creation of Capital Assets.
The Union Budget includes the following :-
Plan and Non-Plan Expenditure: The budget also separates its expenditure into two parts, Plan and Non-Plan expenditure. Plan expenditure includes funds allocated for specific government schemes, while non-plan expenditure includes regular expenses such as salaries, pensions, and administrative costs.
Revenue Budget: It shows the plan for earning This section details the government’s estimated revenue from various sources such as taxes, non-tax revenues and capital receipts. It shows how much money the government plans to earn from taxes, non-tax revenues, and other sources.
Capital Budget: This section details the government’s proposed spending on various capital projects such as infrastructure development, capital investment in public sector enterprises, and other long-term investments. Returns of Capital investments are fruitfull after years but are multifold then any other type of investments.
Tax Proposals: The budget also includes proposals for changes in tax laws and tax rates, which can have a significant impact on businesses and individuals.
The Railway Budget was separated from the General Budget in 1921 on the recommendations of the Acworth Committee but now Railway Budget is merged with the Union Budget in 2016.
Enactment of Budget:-
Immediately after the presentation of the Budget, the following three statements under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003 are also laid on the Table of Lok Sabha:-
(i) The Medium-Term Fiscal Policy Statement;
(ii) The Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement; and
(iii) The Macro-Economic Framework Statement
Current Affair 3:
KEY HIGHLIGHTS ABOUT BUDGET 2023-24 – 1 Theory
In the 75th Year of India's Independence, the World has recognized the Indian Economy as a 'bright star' with its Economic Growth estimated at 7 per cent, which is the highest among all major economies. India’s economic growth in the current year is estimated to be 9.2 per cent, highest among all large economies.
The seven priorities, termed Saptarishi, adopted in the Union Budget for FY 2023-24 to guide the country towards 'Amrit Kaal', thus providing a blueprint for an empowered and inclusive economy, are:
Four priorities:
- PM GatiShakti :- The seven engines that drive PM GatiShakti are Roads, Railways, Airports, Ports, Mass Transport, Waterways and Logistics Infrastructure.
- Inclusive Development includes Agriculture , Ken-Betwa Project , MSME ,Skill Development , Education , Health , Saksham Anganwadi , Harr Ghar , Nal se jal , Housing for All , Prime Minister’s Development Initiative for North-East Region (PM-DevINE) , Vibrant Village Programme , banking , e-passport , Urban Planning among others.
- Productivity Enhancement & Investment, Sunrise Opportunities, Energy Transition, and Climate Action
- Financing of Investment
Current Affair 4:
KEY HIGHLIGHTS ABOUT BUDGET 2023-24 – 2 DATA
OUTLAY FOR PM AWAS YOJANA ENHANCED BY 66% to 79,000 Crore. HIGHEST EVER CAPITAL OUTLAY OF Rs. 2.40 LAKH CRORE PROVIDED FOR RAILWAYS.
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- 1 RUPEE COMES FROM
A 1 RUPEE GOES TO
There has been no consistent decline in Fiscal Deficit since 2020-21 ( 9.2-> 6.7 -> 6.4->6.4 -> 5.9). Revenue Deficit decreased from 4.4 in 2021-22 and 4.1 in 2022-23 but was (4.1) more than expected (3.8). Primary deficit decreased from 3.3 to 3 but was more than expected(2.8). Effective Revenue deficit also decreased from 3.4 to 2.9 but was more than expected (2.6). (All data in % of GDP after revised estimates of 2022-23.
Current Affair 5:
KEY HIGHLIGHTS ABOUT BUDGET 2023-24 – 3 TRENDS
There was an increase in Gross Tax collection after the decrease in 2019-20 from 9.8% of GDP to 10.3 and 11.4 in successive years but it decreased in revised estimates of 2022-23 and is set to remain same during 2023-24.
There has been no trend in collection of direct taxes as it was 5.1% during 2019-20 but decreased to 4.8 in following year and increased during 2021-22 to 6.0% and is set to remain same for successive years.
The indirect taxes increased from 4.7% to 5.5% of GDP in the year 2020-21 and has been decreasing since then.
There has been consistent increase in Net Centre’s tax revenue from the year 2013-14 whereas no such trend can be observed in both Non debt Capital receipt and Non tax revenue in any time frame after 2013-14.
There has been consistent increase in both Capital Expenditure and Effective Capital Expenditure since the year 2017-18.There has been consistent rise in Grant in Aid for creation of capital assets since 2019-20 , in earlier year it was same but has been on increasing role after 2015-16.
There has been increase in schemes for social welfare , education and transport since 2021-22 while there has been no such trend in the field of Urban development , Health , Agriculture and allied activities and Rural development.
Total transfers to States and Union territories has been on the rise since 2019-20 with 11.45 lakh crore to be 18.63 lakh crore as planned for the year 2023-24. There was steep increase from 13.20 lakh crore in 2020-21 to 17.06 lakh crore in 2021-22.
Maximum transfers to states and union territories is through devolution and the through schemes. Finance commission grants has been about 20-25% of total transfers to states.
BUDGET PROFILE IN LAKH CRORE
