NEW DELHI: Delhi deputy chief minister and finance minister Manish Sisodia on Saturday presented a budget worth Rs 75,800 crore for 2022-23, which is two-and-a-half times higher than the budget of Rs 30,940 crore in 2014-15.
This is the eighth consecutive budget of the Aam Aadmi Party government with a major focus on generating employment opportunities for the citizens of Delhi and helping the economy recover from losses due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Calling it the ‘Rozgaar budget’ with an aim to increase the percentage of working population in Delhi from the current 33% to 45%, Sisodia announced that in the next five years 20 lakh new jobs in various sectors, including retail, food and beverage, logistics, travel and tourism, real estate and green energy will be created.
While sharing the employment figures of other cities, including London, New York and Singapore, Sisodia said: “Currently, only 57 lakh people out of the total population of the national capital are employed. The government aims to take this number to 75 lakh in the next five years. Our target is not very ambitious but we want to take it to a reasonable percentage.”
“To implement the policies focused on employment generation about Rs 4,500 crore will be required during the next five years. An outlay of Rs 800 crore is proposed for all these programmes for the year 2022-23,” he added.
Further speaking about the employment initiatives, Sisodia said that the Delhi Rozgaar portal created 1.78 lakh government jobs and over 10 lakh private jobs in the post-Covid period.
In order to give the night economy a fillip, Sisodia announced the "Food Truck Policy" under which a food truck service will run from 8 pm to 2 am. He said the policy of “Cloud Kitchen” will further create 42,000 jobs.
Another announcement that Sisodia made on Saturday was the introduction of the “Delhi Bazaar” portal to boost retail markets. Sisodia said the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government would open a virtual store for local merchants that will benefit 10 lakh vendors in the city and will help create 3 lakh jobs in the retail sector in the next five years. A sum of Rs 20 crore was proposed for the Delhi Bazaar portal.
In addition, a Delhi shopping festival was proposed separately for the retail market and the wholesale market. Sisodia proposed a budget worth Rs 250 crore for this yearly festival. Sisodia announced that the Gandhi market will also be redeveloped into a great market hub.
Shopping, film festivals
Key features of the budget