Union Budget 2024: All You Need To Know About This Year's Interim Budget
Interim Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the 92nd Budget on On February 1
On February 1, 2024, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the 92nd Budget. This year, it is an interim Budget, as the general elctions will be held in a few months. Here in the following we find the nitty-gritty of the Union Budget.
17th Lok Sabha – Last Parliament Session
- Budget Session of Parliament – January 31 to February 9, 2024
Budgets
Since Independence – 91 Budgets were presented so far
- 2024 – 92nd Budget of the Independent India will be presented by Nirmala Sitharaman
| Budget Type | Budget in Numbers |
| Regular Budget | 77 |
| Interim Budget | 14 |
| Total | 91 |
Number of Budgets under PM Modi
Total Budget – 12 (including 2024)
- Full Budgets – 10
- Interim Budgets – 2 (including 2024)
| Finance Minister | No of Budget presentation | Year |
| Arun Jaitley | 5 Regular | 2014 to 2018 |
| Piyush Goyal | 1 (Interim) | 2019 |
| Nirmala Sitharaman | 6 (Regular – 5, Interim - 1) | 2019 to 2024 (including the current one) |
Interim/Vote on Account Budgets
- 14th so far
| Date of Budget | Financial Year | Presented |
| February 29, 1952 | 1952-53 | CD Deshmukh |
| March 19, 1957 | 1957-58 | TT Krishnamachari |
| March 14, 1962 | 1962-63 | Morarji Desai |
| March 20, 1967 | 1967-68 | Morarji Desai |
| March 24, 1971 | 1971-72 | YB Chavan |
| March 28, 1977 | 1977-78 | HM Patel |
| March 11, 1980 | 1980-81 | R Venkatraman |
| March 4, 1991 | 1991-92 | Yashwant Sinha |
| February 28, 1996 | 1996-97 | Manmohan Singh |
| March 25, 1998 | 1998-99 | Yashwant Sinha |
| February 3, 2004 | 2004-05 | Jaswant Singh |
| February 16, 2009 | 2009-10 | Pranab Mukherjee |
| February 17, 2014 | 2014-15 | P Chidambaram |
| February 1, 2019 | 2019-20 | Piyush Goyal |
Difference between Interim Budget and Vote-on-Account
- Interim Budget - Includes the current state of the economy, plan and non-plan expenditures and receipts, changes in tax rates, revised estimates of the current financial year and estimates for the coming financial year
- Vote-on-Account - Essential expenditures such as salaries of central government staff, funding of ongoing projects, and other government expenditures and no tax change
Comparing Interim Budget of 2019 and 2024 (Election Scenario)
| 2019 - Interim Budget | 2024 - Interim Budget |
| 2019 Interim Budget was presented on the background of loss in three states in the Hindi belt | 2024 Interim Budget will be presented on background of thumping victories in three key states |
| 2018 - BJP lost Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh Assembly elections | 2023 - BJP won Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh Assembly elections |
| The loss in three states was a big setback to the Modi government | The three-state victories serve as a pivotal boost for the BJP leading into the 2024 Lok Sabha elections |
| The loss led to the announcement of sops in the interim budget (Table below) | Now BJP aims for 400+ seats, it may not let the opportunity a pre-election budget presents go waste, targeted sops for a particular group |
| These sops, many believed, had considerably helped the BJP's prospects in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections | The Ram Mandir fervour and likely sops in the interim budget may boost BJP |
| The interim budget was dubbed towards realising a 'New India' | Modi's guarantee is getting increased acceptance |
December 2023 – Nirmala Sitharaman
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had ruled out any "spectacular announcement" in the Budget
- She said it would simply be a "vote on account" before the general elections
- No spectacular announcements come in that time, she said
- Sitharaman said the country will have to wait till the new government comes in and presents the next full Budget in July 2024
Budget Focus – 10 questions for Interim Budget
| Pointers | Questions |
| Modi guarantees | Will Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pack up the Budget with freebies in the name of Modi's guarantees? |
| Focus on PM Modi's castes | How will the interim budget focus on ‘GYAN’ – ‘Gareeb (Poor), Youth, Annadata (Farmer) and Nari (Woman)’? |
| Religious Tourism | Will Interim Budget focus on Ayodhya/Religious Tourism? |
| South India | Will Interim Budget provide something for South India? |
| Modi's Third Term | Will interim budget sketch the Modi government’s third term? |
| Third-largest Economy | How can the Interim Budget propel India's ambitions to become the third-largest economy? |
| Jobs Creation | Can the Interim Budget provide Opposition attacks on the government in terms of jobs creation? |
| New Pension System | Will there be tweak in the New Pension System (NPS), a demand by the opposition parties reverting to Old Pension Scheme (OPS)? |
| Women Farmers | Will there be proposal to double PM Kisan Samman Nidhi for women farmers in the Interim Budget? |
| Rural Poor | Will the finance minister declare few welfare schemes for the rural poor in the Interim Budget? |
PM Modi Guarantees in the Budget
- In the course of campaigning for Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Chhattisgarh, Prime Minister Modi announced many ‘guarantees’
- What is Modi Guarantees– Modi government’s welfare narratives
- When the campaigning begins for Lok Sabha 2024, “Modi guarantees” will be central to the party’s welfare narrative
- In the interim budget, there is chance of populist giveaways in its efforts to win over the voters
| PM Guarantees | Beneficiaries |
| PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana | 81.35 crore beneficiaries |
| PM Mudra Yojana | 43.57 crore loans sanctioned |
| PM Awas Yojana - Urban | 1.18 crore houses sanctioned |
| PM Awas Yojana - Gramin | 3.24 crore beneficiaries registered |
| LPG Connections | 9.59 crore LPG connections |
| PM Jan Dhan Yojana | 50.56 crore beneficiaries |
| PM Jan Arogya Yojana | 5.72 crore free treatments done |
| PM Kisan Samman Nidhi | 11.28 crore beneficiaries |
| PM Matru Vandana Yojana | 3.48 crore cash incentive of Rs. 5,000 to Pregnant Women and Lactating Mothers |
| Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) | 11.31 crore toilets constructed |
(Note – overlapping Labharthis)
Table – Major schemes dealing with Labharthis
- Total– Rs 742,208 crore (Rs 7.42 lakh crore)
| Major Schemes | 2023-24 |
| Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program | Rs 60,000 crore |
| Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (PMJAY) | Rs 7,200 crore |
| Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM)/National Rural Drinking Water Mission | Rs. 70,000 crore |
| Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna (PMAY) | Rs 79,590 crore |
| Swachh Bharat Mission | Rs. 12,192 crore |
| National Livelihood Mission – Ajeevika | Rs 14,129 crore |
| Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojna | Rs 10,787 crore |
| Krishionnati Yojana | Rs 7,066 crore |
| Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) | Rs 11,600 crore |
| Saksham Anganwadi and POSHAN 2.0 | Rs 20,554 crore |
| Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM Kisan) | Rs 60,000 crore |
| Crop Insurance Scheme | Rs 13,625 crore |
| Urea Subsidy | Rs 175,100 crore |
| Food Subsidy | Rs 197,000 crore |
| Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana | Rs 3,365 crore |
During Budget Session
- January 31, 2024- President Droupadi Murmu to address Parliament
- It will be her last speech in the current Lok Sabha that expires in June
- Murmu's speech to parliament is approved by the Union Cabinet
- Her speech might be used by the government to highlight the performance of the Modi government
- February 1, 2024- Budget to be presented (Time – 11 AM)
- BJP is set to build on the Ram Temple narrative during the Budget session
Economic Survey during the Budget session
- There will no economic survey presented
- In place of Economic Survey - A concise document on the state of India's economy is expected to be presented for 2024-25
- It will be presented prior to the Interim Budget on February 1 instead of a comprehensive Economic Survey like other years
February 1, 2024
- Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to present Interim Budget
- This will be 15th Interim Budget (or say vote on account) since 1947
- The Interim Budget for 2024-25 in Parliament, effective from April 1, 2024
- The Interim Budget will be presented to just meet the expenditure of the government till a new government comes to play
- Interim Budget– Likely to meet expenditure from April to July 2024
- The focus in the Interim Budget, which will be the last major economic document of the Modi 2.0 Government
- Parliament passes a vote-on-account through the Interim Budget
ASLO READ | Union Budget Timeline: From 1947 To 2023. Flashback Of All Budgets Tabled In Parliament
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