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