I read all 58 pages of Budget 2023 summary and tried to explain it in memes for Gen-Z

The Budget for this year (financial year 2023-2024) is out and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has a few incentives that Gen-Z might be interested in. While the college-going folks or the newly-recruited people in their early 20s might not care much about agricultural industry reforms and gold-silver-diamond prices, they might bat an eye for some highlights like mobile phones getting cheaper and clothes getting more expensive. 

What also sets this budget apart from its predecessors is its emphasis on digital libraries and Artificial Intelligence, with FM Sitharaman even mentioning “Make AI in India” in her speech.

So, ICYMI, a few points about the Budget this year:

• Nirmala Sitharaman's speech was one of the shortest this year, at 1 hour 25 minutes
• The Budget speech transcript was 58 pages long
• Sitharaman mentioned the word 'Tax' 51 times in her speech

(and I went through all 58 pages of the Budget 2023 Summary to try and find out what mattered the most to Gen-Z)

Here are the major takeaways:

1. 3 Centres of Excellence for Artificial Intelligence

The Union government has caught on the Artificial Intelligence craze as the budget announced the creation of 3 Centres of Excellence for AI. With the intention of boosting India’s AI ecosystem and development, these centres are to be established in top Indian institutions.

• “Make AI in India and Make AI work for India” seems to be the motto for these projects. 

2. Mobile phones get cheaper but headphones are costlier 

Mobiles and camera lenses will be cheaper according to this year’s Budget. While TVs and electric vehicles getting costlier wouldn’t matter much to the phone-addicted and Metro/bike-riding generation, what matters is headphones getting more expensive.

Time to stick to the earphones that came free with your cheap phone!

3. KYC norms to be simplified 

The Know Your Customer (KYC) process can be quite a headache while setting up your Paytm account or handling other digital transactions. But now, with the Finance Minister’s Budget 2023 speech, it seems that KYC norms are to be simplified; with the numerous steps to be reduced and streamlined better.  

• To quote the speech directly, “The KYC process will be simplified adopting a ‘risk-based’ instead of ‘one size fits all’ approach.” (We still don’t know what this approach would be!)

4. Cigarettes to get more expensive 

As is the case with almost every Budget since the last two decades, cigarettes are to get more expensive as they will now be hit with a 16 per cent increase in the calamity cess imposed on them.

Time to either kick the habit or move on to rolling your tobacco in “papers”!

5. PAN to be a common identifier 

For businesses and employees that are required to have the Permanent Account Number (PAN) card, PAN will now be used as a common identifier for all digital systems of specific government agencies. It is yet to be confirmed which specific agencies these would be. 

6. 100 labs for developing apps with 5G connectivity 

The creation of a hundred labs has been announced for developing apps using 5G services.

• These labs are to be set up in engineering institutions like IITs to create new business models and opportunities.
• These labs will help in developing smart classrooms, intelligent transport systems, and health care apps among other things. 

7. One stop solution for identity and updating address 

The budget also proposes a one-stop solution for updating your identity and address.

• For this purpose, a regulating identity will be established using DigiLocker service and Aadhaar as the primary source of identity. 

8. The new income tax slabs 

In matters of personal income tax, Sitharaman gave us a “clickbait” moment by saying, “persons with income up to 7 lakh will not have to pay any tax”. But matters grew clearer with the points she brought up later. 

Long story short, if you’re earning anywhere up to Rs 7 lakh, you don’t have to pay any taxes.

If you are earning more than Rs 7 lakh, your income will be taxed as per the slab: 

• 0% tax will be levied on the first Rs 3 lakh;
• 5% tax will be levied on the next 3 lakh; ie, Rs 3 lakh to 6 lakh
• 10% tax will be levied on the next 3 lakh; ie, Rs 6 lakh to 9 lakh
• 15% tax will be levied on the next 3 lakh; ie, Rs 9 lakh to 12 lakh
• 20% tax will be levied on the next 3 lakh; ie, Rs 12 lakh to 15 lakh
• 30% tax will be levied on everything above Rs 15 lakh

The increase of the tax brackets this time ensures that you will be saving a bit more on taxes than before. 

In case you are left scratching your head as to what this means for your particular income - you can read this: As per Budget 2023, exactly how much income tax do you have to pay now?

9. A National Digital Library 

For younger school going students, a National Digital Library is also in the works for ensuring the availability of quality books across all geographies, languages, and device-agnostic accessibility.

• Additionally, government agencies like National Book Trust will also be tasked with stocking up rural libraries with more non-curricular books in regional languages.
• Sitharaman added that this move is aimed at bridging the learning loss suffered by children during the pandemic.

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