Union Budget 2024: Check All FAQs And Key Important Terms In This Interim Budget

Union Budget 2024: This will be the last Budget before the country goes into general elections in a few months

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the interim Budget 2024 in Parliament on February 1.

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Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the interim Budget 2024 in Parliament on February 1. This will be the last Budget before the country goes into general elections in a few months. Sitharaman will equal the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai when she presents her sixth straight Budget. She is the first full-time woman finance minister who has tabled five full Budgets since July 2019 and will present an interim or vote-on-account budget next week. On Thursday, the finance minister's address will be streamed live on the official Parliamentary channel — Sansad TV — on YouTube on any compatible device.

In the following are some of the key words which you should know to understand the Budget better.

Finance Bill

This Bill is used by the government to propose the levy of new taxes, changes in the tax structure, or when continuing the existing tax structure.

Annual Financial Statement

Annual Financial Statement highlights receipts and expenditures of the government during a fiscal year.

Fiscal Policy

Fiscal policy is used to monitor domestic economic position of a country; it’s an estimate of taxation and government spending.

Fiscal Deficit

Fiscal Deficit is when the government’s expenditure exceeds its revenue, excluding market borrowings. It is calculated as a percentage of the GDP and is essentially the gap between the government's total spending and the sum of its total receipts.

Direct Taxes

Taxes that are levied directly from taxpayers, such as income tax and corporate tax are called direct taxes.

Indirect Taxes

Taxes that are levied indirectly from taxpayers, such as GST, VAT, customs, and excise duties, and service tax are called indirect taxes.

Revenue Receipt

Revenue receipt contains anything and everything that does not lead to the creation of assets – salaries, subsidies, and interest payments.

Revenue Deficit

Revenue deficit occurs when the government’s total revenue expenditure exceeds its total revenue receipts.

Capital Expenditure

Total amount of money that the government spends towards the development, acquisition or degradation of machinery or assets is called capital expenditure.

Consolidated Fund

The entire revenue raised by the government, market borrowings, and receipts from loans are part of the Consolidated Fund of India. Government's expenditure comes from this fund barring items that are met from the Contingency Fund.

Contingency Fund

This is set aside for any unforeseen events and is at the disposal of the President. Any money withdrawn from this fund, with prior approval of Parliament, is repaid from the Consolidated Fund later.