The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has announced several measures to step up adoption of technology towards digitalization of the economy. While presenting the Union Budget 2024-2025 in the Parliament today, the Union Minister said that the country has successfully used technology for improving productivity and bridging inequality in the economy during past 10 years. She said public investment in digital infrastructure and innovations by the private sector have helped in improving access of all citizens, particularly the common people, to market resources, education, health and services.

Following measures were announced as part of adoption of technology and improving digitalization efforts.

DATA AND STATISTICS

For improving data governance, collection, processing and management of data and statistics, different sectoral data bases, including those established under the Digital India mission, will be utilized with active use of technology tools,  the Union Finance Minister announced.

MOBILE PHONE AND RELATED PARTS

The Finance Minister emphasized that with a three-fold increase in domestic production and almost 100-fold jump in exports of mobile phones over the last six years, the Indian mobile phone industry has matured. In the interest of consumers, the budget proposes to reduce the Customs duty on mobile phone, mobile PCBA and mobile charger to 15 per cent.

ELECTRONICS

The Finance Minister also said that to increase value addition in the domestic electronics industry, the government proposes to remove the customs duty, subject to conditions, on oxygen free copper for manufacture of resistors and to exempt certain parts for manufacture of connectors.

TELECOMMUNICATION EQUIPMENT

To incentivise domestic manufacturing, the Finance Minister also proposes to increase the Customs duty from 10 to 15 per cent on PCBA of specified telecom equipment.

DIGITAL PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE (DPI) APPLICATIONS

Turning to the services sector, the Finance Minister proposes development of DPI applications at population scale for productivity gains, business opportunities, and innovation by the private sector. These are planned in the areas of credit, e-commerce, education, health, law and justice, logistics, MSME, services delivery, and urban governance.

The Finance Minister also said that with continued emphasis on expanding the space economy by 5 times in the next 10 years, a venture capital fund of Rs. 1,000 crore will be set up.

Customs duty changes on electronics and PCBA reshape tariff incentives while a venture capital fund supports space economy expansion. The budget lowers customs duty to 15 per cent on mobile phones, mobile PCBA and mobile chargers; removes customs duty, subject to conditions, on oxygen free copper for resistor manufacture and exempts certain parts for connector manufacture; and increases customs duty on PCBA of specified telecom equipment to 15 per cent. It also directs use of sectoral databases for improved data governance and proposes population scale DPI applications across multiple service areas, while establishing a venture capital fund to expand the space economy.