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Budget 2023: Government Lowers MGNREGA Allocation To Rs 60,000 Crore For FY24

The jobs guarantee scheme continues to be critical in driving rural recovery. 

<div class="paragraphs"><p>A village woman holds her child while carrying clay on her head as she works at a road construction site under NREGA in Paschim Medhinapur district. (Source: Reuters)</p></div>
A village woman holds her child while carrying clay on her head as she works at a road construction site under NREGA in Paschim Medhinapur district. (Source: Reuters)

The central government has allocated Rs 60,000 crore for India’s rural jobs guarantee programme in the upcoming fiscal.

The revised estimate for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act for FY23 now stands at Rs 89,400 crore, according to budget documents.

The scheme was pivotal to the rural economy's recovery during the pandemic, protecting the most vulnerable households against complete income loss. It continues to provide a safety net to a large section of the vulnerable rural population.

Adequate budgetary outlays towards rural employment under MGNREGA, rural infrastructure development, enhancement of irrigation facilities, and an increase in targets for agricultural credit were expected measures, according to a pre-budget note by ICRA. The focus is on making consumers feel better, and measures to help rural communities are expected to be at the heart of the government's policies, it said.