Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Union Budget for the fiscal year 2024–2025 to the Parliament earlier today. This was the final budget of the second term of the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the sixth one to be presented by the current FM.
In July of this year, following the formation of the new government following the Lok Sabha Elections, the Final budget will be presented.
The budget prioritized railways, green growth, infrastructure, agriculture, and fiscal consolidation. Salaried individuals were disappointed that there was no alteration made to the tax rates.
Better than anticipated, the fiscal deficit target for FY25 was set at 5.1 percent of GDP, and the target for FY24 was also revised down to 5.8 percent. Concurrently, the FY25 capital expenditure objective was raised by 11.1 percent to ₹11.1 lakh crore.
“Over the past ten years, there has been a positive transformation in the Indian economy. With hope, people are looking forward to the future. In 2014, the nation encountered many difficulties. In her budget speech, Finance Minister Sitharaman stated, “The Narendra Modi-led government overcame those challenges with Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikaas.”
Budget 2024: Income Tax
During her budget speech, Sitharaman stated, “…I do not propose any changes in tax rates in direct and indirect taxes, including import duties.”
The FM declared that tax collections have more than doubled over the past ten years, despite the fact that the tax regime remained unchanged in this budget. She also mentioned that this year’s average tax return processing time was lowered to 10 days.
In order to improve passenger comfort, convenience, and safety, 40,000 standard rail bogies will be converted to Vande Bharat, according to Railways FM Sitharaman. Major rail infrastructure initiatives, such as Namo Bharat and Metro Rail, will be extended to additional cities.
The port connectivity corridor, the energy, mineral, and cement corridor, and the high traffic density corridor are the other three significant railway corridors that were announced.
Decongestion of the heavy-traffic corridors will also aid enhancing passenger train operations, travel speed and safety for passengers.
These three economic corridor initiatives, in conjunction with freight-only corridors, will lower logistical costs and boost GDP growth, according to Sitharaman.
Following the triumph of the Vande Bharat trains, the FM declared that approximately 40,000 additional rail bogies will be transformed into Vande Bharat coaches.
“Lakhpati Didi” Scheme
According to FM, nine crore women and 83 lakh SHGs (self-help groups) are changing the socio economic landscape of rural areas through empowerment and independence. Almost one crore women have already benefited from their success by becoming “Lakhpati Didis.” Encouraged by the outcome, the goal for “Lakhpati Didi” has been increased from 2 crore to 3 crore.
“The Lakhpati Didi Scheme has been a remarkable success, reaching 83 lakh self-help groups and benefiting 9 crore women, with the goal of empowering two crore women in villages. This initiative, which will provide ₹1 lakh per household for a total of one crore beneficiaries, has the potential to greatly improve the economic standing of rural women. This empowerment raises credit demand while also boosting the rural economy.
Power
Ten million households will be able to receive up to 300 units of free electricity per month through roof-top solarization. According to FM Nirmala Sitharaman, this plan reflects the Prime Minister’s resolve on the historic day of the Shri Ram Mandir’s consecration in Ayodhya. According to Sitharaman, households will be able to save up to ₹15,000–18,000 a year by taking advantage of free solar electricity and selling the excess to distribution companies.
“Technology
Businesses and people’s lives are changing as a result of new age technologies and data. According to FM Sitharaman, they are also making it possible for new economic opportunities to arise and for everyone, even those at the “bottom of the pyramid,” to receive high-quality services at reasonable costs.
She declared that a fifty-year interest-free loan will be used to establish a corpus of one lakh crore rupees. Long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or no interest rates will be made available by the corpus. The private sector will be encouraged to greatly increase research and innovation in sunrise domains as a result. “We need to have initiatives that harness the power of technology and our young people,” she declared.
Programs that harness the potential of technology and our youth are essential,” she stated.
The FM also announced the introduction of a new program aimed at advancing “atmanirbharta” and bolstering deep-tech defense technologies.
“The IT industry and emerging sectors can be considered as indispensable beneficiaries of the 50-year interest-free loan with a corpus of Rs. 1 lakh crore.” In the upcoming ten years, we can anticipate that the funding will strengthen research and innovations, strengthening India’s position as a global technology leader.”
The fiscal deficit and additional important figures
The FY25 fiscal deficit target is set at 5.1% of GDP, along with other important figures.
– The FY24 budget deficit target was changed from 5.9 percent of GDP to 5.8% of GDP.
– As of December, the fiscal deficit for the first nine months of FY24 was ₹9.82 lakh crore, or 55% of the yearly estimates.
₹11.1 lakh crore, an increase of 11.1 percent, is the capital expenditure for FY25.
– ₹30.80 lakh crore is the anticipated total expenditure for FY25. ₹44.90 lakh crore is the revised estimate of total expenditure for FY24.
With ₹30.03 lakh crore in revenue receipts for FY24, it is anticipated that these will surpass the Budget estimate, indicating robust economic growth and formalization.
₹14.13 lakh crore is the estimated gross market borrowing for FY25; ₹11.75 lakh crore is the estimated net borrowing.
The target for FY25 gross tax receipts is ₹26.02 lakh crore.
