Interim Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to present her sixth and first interim budget on 1 February 2024. This being an election year, the interim budget is presented as a temporary arrangement before the formation of the new government. This will be like ‘Vote on Account’ till the arrival of the new government, through which the government tries to maintain the confidence of investors in the market by presenting estimates of its revenue and expenditure.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting the interim budget for the first time.
This budget is very special for Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman because this is her first interim budget. Before this, she had presented 5 full budgets between 2019 and 2023. During the last tenure of Modi government, the then Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had presented the interim budget.
In the interim budget of 2019, the Finance Minister had made many important announcements like PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana, tax exemption and standard deduction in the interim budget itself.
In the first term of the Modi government, Arun Jaitley held the post of Finance Minister and presented the budget from 2014 to 2019, but due to his ill health, this post was later given to Piyush Goyal. In such a situation, he presented the first interim budget of the Modi government on 1 February 2019.
What is the complete schedule of the budget?
According to tradition, this year also the Finance Minister is going to present the interim budget at 11 am. Before presenting the budget, the entire process will be followed in which the Finance Minister will go from her house to North Block at 9 o’clock.
After meeting with the officials, she will take approval from the President for the budget. After this, the budget will be approved in the cabinet meeting around 10.15 minutes. After this, the Finance Minister will present the budget in Parliament at 11 o’clock.
Robust Credit Flow Propels Economic Optimism
1.6x Surge in Credit Across Sectors Paves the Way for 7%+ Growth in FY2024 : Before the FM presents the vote on account, here is a quick look at the credit flow numbers for the last 9 months (Apr—Dec2023). At ₹22.8 Tn, in the first 9 months of this fiscal year, credit flow is a 1.6x, compared to ₹14.1 Tn for the same period, previous fiscal. Credit flow growth across sectors, such Agri (1.5x), MSME (1.7x), Infra (6.2x) and Services (1.4x), over previous period, is outstanding! Rural credit is booming, which discredits all talk of a rural distress. With such credit flow numbers, 7% plus growth looks like the new normal in FY2024 and beyond.
