Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a series of far-reaching reforms, aimed at energising the economy through a combination of short-term, medium-term, and long-term measures.
Infrastructure receives a boost, with 100 more airports by 2024 to support Udaan scheme; and operation of 150 passenger trains to be done through PPP mode.
The Union Budget for the financial year 2020-21 envisaged a total outlay of Rs 30,42,230 crore. Out of this, Rs 3,37,553 crore has been allocated for Defence (excluding Defence Pension). For Defence Pension, an amount of Rs 1,33,825 crore has been provided in Budget Estimates 2020-21. There is an increase of Rs 40,367.21 crore in the total Defence allocations (Rs 4,71,378 crore) including Defence Pension over the financial year 2019-20. Total defence budget accounts for 15.49 per cent of the total central government expenditure for the year 2020-21.
The allocation of Rs 4,71,378 crore represents a growth of 9.37 per cent over Budget Estimates (Rs 4,31,010.79 crore) for the financial year 2019-20.
Out of Rs 3,37,553 crore allocated for the financial year 2020-21, Rs 2,18,998 crore is for the Revenue (Net) expenditure and Rs 1,18,555 crore is for capital expenditure for the Defence Services and the Organisations/Departments under Ministry of Defence.
Referring to the theme of economic development, the Finance Minister said that Rs 27,300 crore would be allocated for development and promotion of Industry and Commerce for 2020-21.
An Investment Clearance Cell will be set up to provide "end to end" facilitation. It is proposed to develop five new smart cities in collaboration with States in PPP mode. A scheme to encourage manufacture of mobile phones, electronic equipment and semi-conductor packaging is also proposed. A National Technical Textiles Mission would be set up with a four-year implementation period from 2020-21 to 2023-24 at an estimated outlay of Rs 1,480 crore to position India as a global leader in Technical Textiles.
To achieve higher export credit disbursement, a new scheme, NIRVIK is being launched to support mainly small exporters. Government e-Marketplace (GeM) is moving ahead for creating a Unified Procurement System in the country for providing a single platform for procurement of goods, services and works. It is proposed to take the turnover of GeM to Rs 3 lakh crores. 3.24 lakh vendors are already on this platform.