The full Budget for the year 2024-25 will be presented on July 23, with the Parliament session beginning a day earlier, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju announced on Saturday.

The Parliamentary Affairs minister said the Budget session will begin on July 22 and is scheduled to end on August 12.

Hon’ble President of India, on the recommendation of Government of India, has approved the proposal for summoning of both the Houses of Parliament for the Budget Session, 2024 from 22nd July, 2024 to 12 August, 2024 (Subject to exigencies of Parliamentary Business). Union Budget,…

— Kiren Rijiju (@KirenRijiju) July 6, 2024

“Hon’ble President of India, on the recommendation of Government of India, has approved the proposal for summoning of both the Houses of Parliament for the Budget Session, 2024 from 22nd July, 2024 to 12 August, 2024 (Subject to exigencies of Parliamentary Business). Union Budget, 2024-25 will be presented in Lok Sabha on 23 July, 2024,” the minister posted on X. 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had presented the interim Budget in February in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. She will be presenting her seventh consecutive Budget, becoming the first finance minister in India’s history to do so, surpassing the previous record set by Morarji Desai.

This will be the first Budget presented during Narendra Modi’s third term as Prime Minister and also the first under him in which the BJP does not have a majority on its own. 

Expectations from the Budget have been high and were fuelled further when President Droupadi Murmu said in her joint address that it will see “many historic steps” and accelerate the pace of reforms. 

“This Budget will be an effective document of the government’s far-reaching policies and futuristic vision. Along with major economic and social decisions, many historic steps will also be seen in this Budget… “The pace of reforms will be further accelerated in tune with the aspirations of people of India for rapid development,” she had said on June 27.

For the middle and salaried classes, one of the biggest expectations is that there will be a change in the income tax structure which will leave more disposable income in their hands.

Stormy Session?

The special session of the Parliament, the first in the 18th Lok Sabha, witnessed stormy scenes with the strengthened opposition looking to make its presence felt under the new Leader of the Opposition in the House, Rahul Gandhi. In the general elections, the results for which were declared on June 4, the INDIA alliance won 232 seats and restricted the BJP to 240. The NDA, though, has a comfortable majority with 293 MPs.

The NEET paper leak exam issue, Manipur, Emergency, Agnipath scheme and the alleged abuse of the Constitution by the ruling dispensation dominated the special session and are likely to make their presence felt in the Budget session as well.  

MPs in the Rajya Sabha during the Interim Budget Session of Parliament, in New Delhi on Friday.
| Photo Credit: ANI

Opposition leaders from the INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha on February 9 said the White Paper brought out by the Narendra Modi government on the state of the economy under the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) was a “political manifesto” that was aimed at “tarnishing” the Manmohan Singh government.

Most of the members questioned the government why it had not mentioned the November 2016 demonetisation in the White Paper, unemployment, inflation and faulty implementation of GST. Several of them recounted the BJP’s pre-poll promises like creating two crore jobs every year, putting ₹15 lakh into the accounts of every citizen after brining back black money, bringing down the prices of fuel and cooking gas and making the rupee stronger against the dollar.

Two Opposition members — RSP’s N.K. Premachandran and Trinamool Congress’s Saugato Roy — had moved a substitute resolution to highlight the failures of the Modi government and appealed to the House to disapprove the government’s White Paper even though the Opposition doesn’t have the numbers in the Lok Sabha.

Parliament Budget Session – February 9 updates

Responding to the allegations of endless scams under the UPA, Congress and DMK members asked the Modi government to spell out the concrete steps it took to put the guilty behind bars in the past 10 years.

“It is a matter of 10 years. Have you taken any action against any political leader?” asked Congress leader Manish Tewari who led the charge from the Opposition benches.

“If you wanted to bring a White Paper, you should have brought it in 2014. The intention behind this White Paper is only political. This is a political manifesto, not a White Paper,” he said.

Landmark legislation

Mr. Tewari said that under former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the UPA brought landmark legislation like right to food under the National Food Security act, right to employment under the MGNREGA, right to compulsory and free education and creation of unique identity under Aadhaar. “What has been your achievements in the past 10 years,” he asked.

Congress leader in the House, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, said, “At the fag end of this session, this kind of White Paper only with an objective to tarnish the 10 years of UPA government does not cut much ice.”

Stating that “Rome was not built in a day,” Mr. Chowdhury asked why the BJP constantly abused the Nehru-Gandhi family and mentioned how Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi are constantly targeted by the ruling dispensation.

His deputy, Gaurav Gogoi, accused the government of using the Enforcement Directorate to “welcome the corrupt into the BJP”. “The action rate of the raids from 2005 to 2014 was 93%, which has now been reduced to 29%. Only 23 convictions under the PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) have been secured…. Why is the conviction rate so low? Because these raids are motivated,” Mr. Gogoi alleged.

‘Baseless allegations’

Mr. Premachandran said the NDA government had devastated the economy and the White Paper didn’t talk about unemployment and high inflation. “What is the bona fide intention of this White Paper… If you are so hopeful and confident, then what is the intent of this paper,” the RSP leader said, adding that the BJP government is coming up with baseless allegations.

Trinamool leader Mr. Saugato Roy said the government and the Finance Minister should apologise for the demonetisation and putting the country into severe hardships.

Talking about the recent troubles with payment app Paytm, Sharad Pawar-led NCP leader Supriya Sule said Google Pay and Phone Pe are ticking time bombs. “Google Pay, Phone Pe are two sitting time bombs. BHIM app is hardly used while Google Pay and Phone Pe apps are used [widely]. What is the government doing on digital or cashless economy?” she said.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman speaks during a post-budget press conference, in New Delhi, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023.
| Photo Credit: PTI

The government will focus on economic growth and job creation and cut down the fiscal deficit, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday, presenting its last full budget in Parliament before the 2024 election.

Here are the charts that show major aspects of Union Budget 2023:

Budget at a glance

The Narendra Modi government focused on a slew of measures that expanded Capital Expenditure spending and tied in various priorities including Green Growth, Youth Power, and Inclusive Development.

Fiscal deficit would be brought down to below 4.5% by 2025-26, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. She also said that tax receipts for the next fiscal are budgeted at ₹23.3 lakh crore and States would be allowed 3.5% of GDP as fiscal deficit.

What funds the deficit

The government plans to borrow a record ₹15.4 lakh crore from dated securities in FY24 to meet its expenditure requirement to prop up the economy. This is higher than the total borrowing of ₹14.21 lakh crore for the current financial year ending March 31, 2023.

Rupee come from

Borrowings and other liabilities account for the largest avenue from where the Budget money comes.

Rupee goes to

With 20% of its budget going into interest payments, the State’s share of taxes and duties and the Central sector scheme assume two major areas of spending for the government.

State-wise allocation of central taxes and duties

Here is the state-wise distribution of net proceeds of Union Taxes and Duties for Budget Estimates 2023-24. The distribution was conducted according to the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission which fixed the share of states at 41% of the net proceeds of sharable Central Taxes and Income Tax.

Transfer to states/UTs

Allocation to Ministries

The Union Budget allocated a massive ₹5.94 lakh crore for the Defence Ministry, a 13% increase year-on-year from last year’s budget estimates.

Outlay for Major Schemes

The Union Budget 2023-24 document listed the new allocations for core welfare schemes that drive socio-economic development.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a number of measures for the agriculture sector, including an increase in the credit target to ₹20 lakh crore, with focus on animal husbandry, dairy and fisheries.

% change for major schemes

Here’s a roundup of how the budgetary allocations for some of the key schemes have changed. While the MGNREGS budget saw a 32% decrease from the revised estimates of 2022-23, the outlay for PM-Kisan remained the same.

Railway Budget in a Glance

With an outlay of ₹2.40 lakh crore for the financial year 2023-24 compared to ₹1.40 lakh crore in the FY22-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the outlay for the railways is nine times the amount provided in 2013-2014.

Cheaper vs Dearer

With an eye on promoting exports, boosting domestic manufacturing and enhancing value addition, Union Budget 2023-24 has proposed number of changes to Customs Duty regime that is likely to make mobile phones and televisions cheaper and certain class of automobiles, including EVs, as well as toys and bicycles dearer.