Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Modi 2.0 government’s last budget before the general elections. The budget she will present is technically a vote on account and popularly termed an interim budget as it seeks Parliament’s nod for a grant in advance to meet the central government’s essential expenditure for the first four months of the new fiscal year that starts in April. A new government elected after the April/May Lok Sabha elections will present the full Budget, likely in July.
Watch the Union Budget 2024 LIVE here:
The interim budget is likely to contain a mix of measures for the economy and electorally significant segments like farmers and women. Peppered with political innuendos, Sitharaman’s sixth straight budget may present a political document with a snapshot of the Narendra Modi-led government’s triumphs in the last 10 years and pointers to how it wants to take the country forward.
LIVE | UNION BUDGET 2024 UPDATES
The interim budget, however, presents an occasion for spectacle just weeks ahead of the Model Code of Conduct coming into force. While the precedence dictates that no major policy announcements are made in a vote on accounts, going by past conventions has not stopped governments from making big announcements like the cash dole for farmers announced in the 2019 interim budget.
The Union Budget 2024 will go live at 11 am (IST). Here is all you need to know:
You can watch the Union Budget 2024 LIVE or follow its LIVE updates on News18.com
Sansad TV and Doordarshan: Both these channels will telecast the budget presentation live on television and their respective YouTube channels.
Press Information Bureau (PIB): It will offer a livestream on its online platforms.
News channels and financial websites: A number of news channels will have special coverage and live telecasts, while news websites dedicated to business and finance will have live feeds and updates.
The budget is expected to focus on infrastructure and buck a trend of spending big on new vote-garnering measures. It would, however, provide an occasion to assess the fiscal health of the economy against the backdrop of robust economic growth. It will provide an occasion for the government to give a clear roadmap for achieving the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act (FRBMA) targets.
The budgeted fiscal deficit of 5.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for the current fiscal is likely to be achieved, but it is nearly twice the FRBM fiscal deficit to the GDP target of 3 percent for the Centre. Correspondingly, the debt-GDP ratio at 54 percent is also well above the target of 40 percent.
In a note, EY said the possibility of sustaining nominal GDP growth at 10.5 percent, it may take up to 13 years to reach a debt-GDP level of 40 percent. This is based on successfully reducing the fiscal deficit to GDP ratio to 3 percent by FY29.
Mobile app for budget documents
All the budget documents, including the Annual Financial Statement (commonly known as Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), Finance Bill among others will be available on the ‘Union Budget Mobile App’ for hassle-free access to budget documents by MPs and the general public. The documents will be available on the app after the completion of the budget speech by the union finance minister.
The app is bilingual (English and Hindi) and will be available on both Android and iOS platforms. It can also be downloaded from the union budget web portal: www.indiabudget.gov.in
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