Budget 2024 Highlights and Reactions

Finance Finance

Posted by admin on 2024-02-01 |

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her sixth budget today, comprising five full budgets and one interim budget. The interim budget speech, expectedly brief at 58 minutes due to its vote on account nature, marked Sitharaman's shortest budget address. In contrast, her 2020 budget speech holds the record for being the longest in history, lasting 162 minutes or two hours and 42 minutes.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor criticized the budget, stating it was one of the shortest on record with little concrete implementation discussed. Tharoor highlighted the lack of acknowledgment regarding the significant decrease in foreign investment and deemed the speech disappointing for its reliance on generalities without addressing specific economic issues.

In her speech, Finance Minister Sitharaman promised economic reforms to drive growth, positioning the interim budget for 2024-25 as an economic manifesto for the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The budget provides insights into the government's plans for fiscal consolidation, borrowings, and future taxation policy.

Sitharaman announced an 11% increase in India's capital spending for 2024-25, amounting to ?11.11 lakh crore or 3.4% of the GDP. Emphasizing the multiplier effect of tripling capital expenditure over the last four years on economic growth and employment, she disclosed that Indian air carriers have ordered 1,000 new aircraft.

Other key points include the launch of a scheme to enhance deep tech for the defense sector, promotion of public and private investment in post-harvesting agriculture activities, and the expansion of nano DAP application on various crops in agri-climatic zones. Additionally, three major railway corridors, including one for cement, will be constructed, and 40,000 normal railway bogies will be converted to Vande Bharat standard.

The budget allocation details for specific ministries are as follows: