Delhi Finance Minster and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia presented the annual budget for the financial year 2022-23 in the Delhi Assembly on Saturday, 26 March.
Sisodia presented a Rs 75,800 crore budget, calling it the Rozgaar Budget which will focus on unemployment.
He said that the budget will focus on getting people out of the impacts of demonetisation, COVID-19 pandemic, and Goods and Services Tax (GST). The aim is to create 20 lakh new jobs in the next five years, said Sisodia.
After Manish Sisodia presented the budget in the Delhi assembly, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal conducted a press conference, where he praised the budget calling it bold and innovative and congratulated Sisodia.
Kejriwal said that it is a budget for all and would solve two big problems – unemployment and inflation.
Generating Employment
Sisodia said that the budget aims at increasing the percentage of the working population of Delhi from 33% to 45% in the next five years. This would mean increasing the working population from the current 56 lakh to 76 lakh.
He also said that eight sectors have been identified as priority sectors to generate employment. These include the following:
Retail sector
Food and beverages
Logistic and supply chain
Travel and tourism
Entertainment
Construction
Real estate
Green energy
Creating the targeted 20 lakh jobs should cost about Rs 4,500 crore over five years, said Sisodia and proposed Rs 800 crore for the first year.
He also said that an audit will be conducted to determine the number of jobs created.
Rozgaar Bazaar and Delhi Shopping Festival
In the budget, Rs 100 crores have been proposed to redevelop and transform iconic markets of Delhi. This is expected to create 1.5 lakh new jobs in five years.
'Delhi Shopping Festival' will be organised to increase tourism and attract more business. There will also be a Delhi Wholesale Shopping Festival for businesses. Rs 250 crore have been allocated for this.
Delhi Bazaar, an online platform for trading by local merchants, will be set up, for which Rs 20 crore have been allocated.
An artificial intelligence-based website and mobile app 'Rozgar Bazaar 2.0' would be set up to provide jobs to women and youth.
Health Care and Education
A total budget allocation of Rs 9,769 crore has been made for the health sector for this financial year.
Rs 1,900 crore have been allocated for the construction of new hospitals and the remodeling of existing government hospitals.
A free 24-hour helpline would be set up for health card holders, on which medical advice can be sought and appointments can be booked. A QR code based e-health card will be made for all citizens. Rs 70 crore have been proposed for this scheme.
A total of Rs 16,278 have been allocated towards the education sector.
Rs 10 crore have been allocated for setting up a boarding school for underprivileged homeless children. Also, all classrooms in all schools will be digitised.
Environment and Electricity
A budget of Rs 266 crore has been proposed for the environment and forest sector. Sisodia also said that the government will launch over 4,200 e-autos with 33% reservation for women drivers and issue 5,000 e-auto permits every year.
And the government also aims to create over one lakh green jobs.
Electricity subsidy and zero power bill, one of AAPs biggest schemes, has been given Rs 3,250 crore for the year.
"Delhi's per capita income is likely to increase to ₹ 4,01,982 at current prices in the financial year 2021-22. In the year 2020-21, it was ₹ 3,44,136. This shows an increase of 16.81 percent in Delhi's per capita income in 2021-22," Sisodia said.
In the run-up to the presentation of the budget in the Assembly, the Aam Aadmi Party had introduced participatory budgeting and asked the city of Delhi to contribute their suggestions for the budget on the finance department's website.
Last year's budget for Delhi was called the "Deshbhakti Budget." A sizeable portion of this budget was allocated for education.
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