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

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier ruled out any 'spectacular announcement' in the Budget as she said it would simply be a 'vote on account' before the general elections.

Source : Getty

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. 

17^th 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 – 92^nd 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

• 14^th 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 15^th 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