Alok Puranik (Economic Expert): In the speech of the interim budget 2024-25, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman enumerated the achievements of her government in about 10 years and did not present any new major proposal. Thus, if she wanted, she could have given some relief in terms of taxes etc., especially to the middle class taxpayers. From the confidence with which the budget talks about the coming years, it seems that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is confident that the next many governments will be of her coalition.
The government used the opportunity of the interim budget very well to list its achievements. It can also be said that if the government has not withdrawn any more tax from the pockets of income tax payers, then it should be considered positive. If the government is not taking anything new from you, then understand that it is giving it to you. This is an approach to understanding situations. According to the interim budget, the fiscal deficit in the financial year 2023-24 will be 5.8 percent of the gross domestic production (GDP). This deficit is estimated to be 5.1 percent in the next financial year. This fiscal deficit is estimated to be 4.5 percent in the year 2025-26.
Recently a dispute had arisen between India and Maldives. Some important people of Maldives government had objected to Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Lakshadweep. Now there has been talk of tourism development in the interim budget. Tourism is an important sector, work should be done on it quickly, but it is not just a matter of the will of the Central Government. Cooperation of state governments is also necessary. The per capita income in the country has doubled to Rs 1.97 lakh in about nine years. In nine years the economy rose from tenth place to fifth place in the world. 11.7 crore toilets were constructed under Swachh Bharat Mission. About 9.6 crore gas connections were given under the Ujjwala scheme. 47.8 crore bank accounts were opened under PM Jan Dhan Yojana. Rs 2.2 lakh crore was transferred to 11.40 crore farmers as Kisan Samman Nidhi.
That is, the main points mentioned in the interim budget are actually election points, and the actual provisions of the budget will be presented after the elections. In this way, the interim budget can be called a manifesto to some extent. The announcement may change later. But an important announcement is that there will be a significant increase in capital expenditure, it has been increased by 11.1 percent to Rs 11,11,111 crore, which is 3.4 percent of the GDP. This is certainly a huge increase. Capital expenditure means such expenditure in which bridges, roads etc. are built. When construction takes place in the economy, there is an all-round positive impact on the economy. Forty thousand ordinary railway coaches will be converted as per ‘Vande Bharat’ standards. This is a huge step.
interim budget In 2017, the government patted itself on the back by saying that the number of airports in the country had doubled to 149 and 517 new air routes were taking 1.3 crore passengers to their destinations. The country’s aviation companies have ordered more than 1000 new aircraft. The civil aviation of the country is definitely writing a new story. Construction is fine, but quality construction is important. The average time frame for processing tax returns was reduced to ten days from 93 days in 2013-14. The report card of this government has been strong in terms of technology. Politics is clearly visible in the budget, when there is talk of bringing a white paper in the budget on where we were in 2014 and where we will be in 2024.
(These are the personal views of the author.)