Key Highlights of Interim Union Budget 2024

Understanding what is interim budget and key highlights of India’s interim union budget of fiscal year 2024-25.

The union interim budget 2024-25 was announced yesterday i.e 1st February 2024 at 11 am by Finance Minister (FM) Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament. Interim budget means ‘short-term’ budget. It is released in election years to keep essential government operations funded and manage national expenses & revenue until the new elected government presents its annual budget. The new government may make changes to the interim budget and announce it as the annual budget or present a completely new annual budget. Because we have general elections scheduled between April to May 2024, therefore the government has announced an interim budget rather than the regular annual budget. So, let’s get started and see what the new budget has to offer.

  1. Through the Pradhan Mantri Suryodaya Yojana, solar panels on the rooftops of 1 crore households will be installed. In this 300 Units Of Free Electricity will be provided to 1 crore households every month. The households are expected to save ?15,000 - ?18,000/- on electricity bill per year.

  2. FM announced a new Rural Housing Scheme that will allow the middle class & those living in rented houses, slums, and unauthorized colonies to buy or build their own house in the next 5 years.

Apart from this the government will also build 2 crore new houses under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana to meet the high demand of the growing population.

  1. More medical colleges to be set up using the existing infrastructure.

  2. Healthcare cover under Ayushman Bharat scheme to be extended to all Anganwadi workers & Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) helpers. 

  3. Plans to increase the target of the "Lakhpati Didi'' scheme from 2 crore women to 3 crore women were announced. The scheme trains women in plumbing, LED bulb making, drone operation, tailoring, and weaving and encourages women to establish micro-enterprises (small businesses which hire about 10 people) and earn a minimum annual income of ?1 lakh.

  4. Funds allocated to defense have been increased by 4.5% from ?5.94 lakh crores last year to ? 6.21 lakh crores this year.

  5. Policies and schemes focusing education and skill development, support for startups, and sports achievements have been promised. 

  6. A corpus of ?1 lakh crore, that would be available on ‘minimal or nil interest rates’ for 50 years has been announced  to encourage the private sector to invest in research & development in ‘sunrise domain.’ Sunrise domains (field) are the companies that are new or relatively new, are growing fast and are expected to become important in the future.

  7. 40,000 railway coaches are promised to be converted to Vande Bharat standard. Metro Rail to be expanded to other cities as well. 

  8. The new ‘UDAN’ scheme to introduce 517 new routes to connect tier-2 and tier-3 cities (cities with 50,000 to 100,000 population = tier-2 cities & 20,000 to 50,000 population = tier-3 cities) by airways & expand the existing airports was introduced. 

  9. Green energy (wind, biogas, CNG, electric cars) will be a major investment sector to reduce dependency on fossil fuels and fight climate change. 

  10. Long-term interest-free loans will be provided to States for development of quality centers, infrastructure, branding & marketing to increase tourism globally. 

  11. Government will put in efforts (come up with some schemes etc) to increase farmers' income and will promote private investment as one of the post-harvest activities. 

  12. No changes in Income Tax slab rates, GST rates, other taxes & import duty were announced. 

  13. Capital expenditure (fund) has been increased by 11.1% to ?11.11 lakh crore for infrastructural development and to boost domestic tourism, increase port connectivity on all Indian islands including Lakshadweep.

  14. Developmental assistance aid fund for Maldives has been reduced from ? 770.90 crore last year to ?600 crore.

The 2024-25 interim budget focuses majorly on the development of digital infrastructure, private investment, green energy & tourism.

FM Sitharaman said that the government would take up next-generation reforms to facilitate growth and the next five years will be of unprecedented development and golden moments to realize the dream of developed India by 2047.

Now lets see what all changes are made to this interim budget in July 2024.

Tags

Advertisement