Last updated: Feb 01, 2023, 9:13 PM IST
The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the Union budget for 2023-24 in the Lok Sabha. (Photo: PTI)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today presented her fifth Union budget for 2023 ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections
The word “tax” was used forty-three times by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her 85-minute speech during the presentation of the 2023-24 budget on Wednesday. Development (28), Infrastructure (26) and Digital (21) were some of the other most frequently used words in the speech of the Minister of Finance.
Sahil Deo, a quantitative social scientist, shared word frequencies from Sitharaman’s speech on Twitter. The Minister of Finance also used the words Capital (18) and Investments (16) several times.
Tax was mentioned the most, 43 times. The next most frequently mentioned words were development (28 times) and infrastructure (26 times). Digital was mentioned 21 times. Words related to agriculture were mentioned as follows: agriculture and agriculture (mentioned 11 and 3 times)1/2
— Sahil Deo (@DeoSahil) February 1, 2023
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today presented her fifth 2023-24 Union budget ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections, which lasted nearly 1 hour and 25 minutes. The biggest distraction from her speech was the turmoil in the new tax regime for the middle class.
The government announced zero income tax for those earning up to Rs 7 lakh from the earlier Rs 5 lakh under the new regime. It also proposed reducing the top surcharge rate from 37% to 25%. Also, the limit of 3 lakh on furlough has been increased to 25 lakh.
Other key highlights included a 33% increase in capital investment expenditure to Rs 10 lakh crore which will amount to 3.3% of GDP, a budget deficit of 5.9% of GDP and the “highest ever” expenditure for Indian Railways on Rs 2.40 lakh crore.
The finance minister said “Sapthrisis guides us through Amrit Kaal” while outlining seven priorities, namely inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector in Budget 2023.
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