NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the Interim Budget 2024, which will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday. PM Modi chaired the cabinet meeting ahead of the Interim Budget presentation in Parliament.
The Union Finance Minister will table the interim budget as the Lok Sabha polls are due to be held this year. This will be her sixth Budget as the Finance Minister and last in the second term of the Modi government. Meanwhile, Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said, “It is an important day.”
In his customary media briefing ahead of the Budget session, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his government will “follow tradition” and the full Budget will be presented only after the formation of new government. Union Minister Rao Inderjit Singh said, “The Budget will be progressive and for the development of the country”.
Keeping with tradition, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman first called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan together with her colleagues Ministers of State Bhagwat Karad and Pankaj Chaudhary ahead of the Budget presentation in Parliament on Thursday morning.
The interim budget will take care of the financial needs of the intervening period until a government is formed after the Lok Sabha polls. A full budget will be presented by the new government. The Budget Session of Parliament commenced on Wednesday with President Droupadi Murmu addressing a joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
Sitharaman equaled the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who as finance minister, presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964.
In her address, the President said 2023 was a historic year for the country and among other steps, the country kept up the momentum of being the fastest-growing major economy. “The year 2023 was a historic year for India when it grew the fastest among major economies despite the global crisis. India grew about 7.5 per cent for two consecutive quarters,” she said.’
The last session before Lok Sabha polls, expected to be held in April-May this year, will have a total of eight sittings spread over 10 days.
A day before the session was set to start, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, at an all-party meeting, said the budget session would mainly be devoted to the financial business relating to the interim union budget for 2024-25 and discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address.
However, essential legislative and other business may also be taken up during this session. The all-party meeting was attended by 45 leaders from 30 political parties.
In addition, he also informed that Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2023-24 in respect of the Union Government will be discussed. The presentation and discussion on the Interim Budget of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for 2024-25 along with Supplementary Demands for Grants of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir for the financial year 2023-24 will also be taken up and voted.
The Indian economy is projected to grow close to 7 per cent in the financial year 2024-25 which starts this April, said the Ministry of Finance in a review report. India’s economy grew 7.2 per cent in 2022-23 and 8.7 per cent in 2021-22. The Indian economy is expected to grow 7.3 per cent in the current financial year 2023-24, remaining the fastest-growing major economy.
The last full Budget of Modi government 2.0 had proposed to increase capital expenditure outlay by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore in 2023-24, which would be 3.3 percent of the GDP. It was almost three times the outlay in 2019-20. (ANI)