Interim Union Budget 2024-25: Important Point

Interim Union Budget 2024-25: Important Point

On February 1, 2024, as part of the legislature’s budget session, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will deliver the Union Budget 2024 for the fiscal year 2024–2025. However, due to it being an election year, the budget presented will be a temporary financial plan or a vote on account.

Govt’s four focus areas

• Welfare of youth,
• Women,
• Farmers,
• and the Poor.

GDP

• Real GDP recorded a growth of 7.7 per cent in the H1 2023-24
• In Q1 FY24 India’s real GDP grew by 7.8%
• In Q2 FY24 GDP grew by 7.6%
• In FY2023, GDP grew year-over-year (YoY) at 7.2%
• According to NSO, India’s real GDP growth in 2023-24 is seen as 7.3%
• IMF projections for India’s economy in FY 24 6.7%

Fiscal Announcements

• Capex outlay of Rs 11.11 lakh crore
• Capex outlay at 3.4 per cent of GDP
• FY24 Fiscal Deficit target revised to 5.8 per cent of GDP from 5.9 per cent.
• 5.1 % Fiscal Deficit target for FY 25
• Govt plans to reduce fiscal deficit to 4.5 per cent in 2025-26
• FY 25 Gross market borrowing target is Rs 14.13 lakh crore
• Net market borrowing seen at Rs 11.75 lakh crore
• Revised expenditure for FY 24 Rs 44.90 lakh crore
• Total revenue receipts in 2024/25 estimated at Rs 30 lakh crore vs revised estimate of Rs 26.99 lakh crore
• Nominal GDP growth seen at 10.5%
• Food Subsidy 2.12 lakh crore
• FY 24 Divestment Target Cut to Rs 30,000 crore
• FY 25 Divestment Target set at Rs 50,000 crore

Direct and Indirect Tax

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposes no change in direct and indirect tax including import tax
• Same tax rates for Direct and Indirect tax retained
• Tax break for start-up, investments made by Sovereign wealth funds, extended to March 31, 2025
• Focus on improving taxpayers service
• Tax reforms have widened the tax base and increased tax collections
• Govt to withdraw old disputed direct tax demands of up to Rs 25,000 till FY2009 and Rs 10,000 for 2010-11 to 2014-15. It will benefit 1 crore taxpayers
• FM also proposes some tax benefits for pension funds
• Processing time of tax returns reduced from 93 days in FY14 to 10 days
• Tax base of GST more than doubled
• The number of tax filers swelled by 2.4 times, direct tax collection trebled since 2014
• Tax receipts for 2024-25 are projected at Rs 26.02 lakh crore
• Direct Tax Collections tripled in last 10 years
• Return filing swelled to 2.4 times

Agriculture

• Promote investment in post-harvest activity by both private and public sector support
• Empower dairy farmers
• More efforts to control Foot and mouth disease
• Application of Nano-DAP to be expanded in all agro-climatic zones
• Crop insurance has been given to 4 crore farmers under PM Fasal Bima Yojana
• Five integrated Aqua Park to be set up
• Govt to launch Blue Economy 2.0 to promote aquaculture
• Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matsaya Sampada Yojana to be stepped up to enhance aquaculture productivity, double exports and generate more jobs
• Direct financial assistance to 11.8 crore farmers under PM-KISAN

Nari Shakti in focus

• Nari Shakti found a special place in the Budget 2024; Here are the key points
• 30 crore Mudra Yojana loans disbursed to women entrepreneurs
• Increased female enrolment in higher education by 28 per cent in 10 years
• 43 per cent of female enrolment in STEM courses
• 1 crore women assisted by 83 lakh SHGs to become Lakhpati Didis

FY25 divestment target at 50,000 cr

• The government has revised FY24’s divestment target to Rs 30,000 crore from Rs 51,000 crore budgeted previously.
• The target for FY25 has been set at Rs 50,000 crore.

Rs 928.46 crore allocated to CBI

• The government has reduced the allocation to the Central Bureau of Investigation by Rs 40.4 crore. This time the probe agency has received Rs 928.46 crore.
• Earlier, it received Rs 946.51 crore to manage its affairs in the Budget Estimates for 2023-24.

Health budget

• Encourage Cervical Cancer Vaccination for girls (9-14 years)
• Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 to be expedited for improved nutrition delivery, early childhood care and development
• U-WIN platform for immunisation efforts of Mission Indradhanush to be rolled out
• Health cover under Ayushman Bharat scheme to be extended to all ASHA, Angawadi workers and helpers

Rail

• Allocation Rs 2.55 lakh crore
• Three major economic railway corridors under the PM Gati Shakti to improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost
• Energy, mineral and cement corridors
• Port connectivity corridors
• Decongest high-traffic density corridors
• Promotion of urban transformation via Metro rail and NaMo Bharat
• 40,000 normal train bogies to be converted into high-speed Vande Bharat ones

Housing

• New housing plan for the middle class
• 2 crore houses to be built under PM Aavas Yojana
• Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Grameen) close to achieving target of 3 crore houses, additional 2 crore targeted for next 5 years

Renewable energy

• Viability gap funding for wind energy
• Setting up of coal gasification and liquefaction capacity
• Phased mandatory blending of CNG, PNG and compressed biogas
• Financial assistance for procurement of biomass aggregation machinery
• 1 crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity per month

Lokapal gets Rs 33 crore, CVC Rs 51 crore

• Lokpal was given Rs 44.46 crore for 2023-24, which has been revised to Rs 47.73 crore for the ongoing fiscal.
• CVC allocated Rs 51.31 crore for the next financial year.

Tourism

• Interest-free loans to states to promote tourism
• Funds will be provided for development of tourism in Lakshwadweep

Air Connectivity

• 517 new routes to be launched under Udan Scheme

PLI Scheme

• PLI scheme gets Rs 6,200 crore

Sunrise Tech

• FM Nirmala Sitharaman proposes Rs 1 lakh crore corpus to drive private investment in sunrise technologies

Top achievements of Modi govt

• Average income of people has increased by 50%
• GST has enabled one nation, one market, one tax
• Infrastructure build-up is being seen in record time
• Direct transfer of Rs 34 lakh cr using PM Jan Dhan scheme has led to savings for government.
• Inflation has been under check and has been within the policy band
• PM SVANIDHI scheme gave credit assistance to 78 lakh street vendors
• Crop insurance given to 4 crore farmers under PM Fasal Bima Yojana
• 34 cr Mudra Yojana loans been given to women entrepreneurs
• Over 22 crore Mudra loans disbursed in the last 10 years
• Jan Dhan accounts have helped government save over Rs 2 lakh crore
• In the last 10 years government has uplifted 25 crore people out of poverty
• Skill India mission has trained over 1.4 crore youth to make them job ready

Other Important 

• Nirmala Sitharaman announced that 7 IITs, 16 IIITs, 7 IIMs, 15 AIIMS, and 319 universities have been set up.
• To achieve its commitment for ‘net-zero’ by 2070
• On the Capex front, the outlay for next year increased by 11.1% to Rs 11.11 trillion
• No tax changes
• The Budget Containes A Number Of Announcements And Strategies Indicating Directions And Development Approach For Making India Viksit Bharat By 2047
• ‘Lakhpati Didi’ scheme to target 3 crore women
• Rs one trillion corpus for research in technology announced in Interim Budget
• Govt. will borrow Rs 14.13 trillion in FY2024-25