Dr. Ashwini Mahajan National Co-Convenor, Swadeshi Jagran Manch:
Since the budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is an interim budget, no major announcements were expected in it. The long-term vision of the government will be expressed only in the full budget, which will probably be presented in July after the Lok Sabha elections. The interim budget was an opportunity for the government to tell the people about its achievements and the ten-year accounts. The Finance Minister has done this work in this interim budget. There are welfare schemes to remove multidimensional poverty, such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana etc., the government has presented the work done so far in front of the country. It has been told about the expansion of these schemes in future also. For example, it has been announced to increase the target set under the Lakhpati Didi program from two crore to three crore. It is important that the interim budget reflects the central government’s confidence that it does not need to make populist announcements to attract voters in the elections. Well, this government is not even known for this tendency.
In the last budget, the ratio of fiscal deficit to gross domestic production (GDP) was estimated to be 5.9 percent. It was believed that since the nominal GDP would be less this year, the fiscal deficit could be higher than estimated. But what happened is that this deficit is expected to be 5.8 percent in the budget. This indicates that the government has tried to keep the deficit low by using fiscal prudence. The reason for this is that the government is getting adequate amount of revenue. Due to the intensified economic activities in the country, there has been an unprecedented increase in Goods and Services Tax (GST), Personal Income Tax, Corporate Income Tax etc. The government had estimated that the revenue growth rate would be 10.7 percent, but this growth rate has been 15 percent. Due to this increase, despite increase in expenditure, fiscal deficit has remained low. For the next financial year, the government estimates that this deficit will be 5.1 percent. The opposition alleged that the government was increasing the debt burden. In the interim budget, the loan limit has been kept at Rs 14.1 lakh crore. The total borrowing is a little more than Rs 11 lakh crore. This means that this year the government will take less loan than last year. What happens is that the debt keeps increasing every year. This time it is unprecedented that it is decreasing in proportion to GDP.
Reduction in debt also reduces the risk of inflation. Fiscal deficit and inflation are linked to each other. The government has taken proper care of this also. Overall, from the point of view of financial management and management of the economy, no one, not even the opposition, can say that this is a populist budget, which has been brought with a view to electoral gains. Whatever we talk about in terms of development, infrastructure is very important. An 11.1 percent increase in expenditure in this sector has been announced and Rs 11.11 lakh crore has been mentioned to be spent. So far, three crore houses have been built under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. Two crore more houses are to be built under this scheme. This will create demand in the economy. The Finance Minister has also talked about increasing capital expenditure in his speech. In this context too, there is an aspiration to speed up development along with financial prudence and there is no mention of giving freebies or populist talk here either.
interim budget 2024 Through this, the government has also tried to give a new direction to those providing free electricity. Many governments are running various schemes to provide free electricity. In this regard, there is a need to think from where the money will come to distribute such freebies. So, it has been proposed that free electricity should be given to those who install solar panels on their homes. In this way they will generate electricity and also get free electricity. With such efforts, the production of clean energy in the country will also increase and people will also start getting free electricity. Although it is not clear in the budget proposal, but if the government also gives subsidy to encourage the production of solar energy, then it is beneficial because its benefit will continue in the form of free electricity for 25-30 years. Such subsidy will actually prove to be an investment for the future. This is a new direction. It should be expected that there will be proper discussion on this and every effort will be made to implement it.
I think that the full budget that will come after the formation of the new government after the Lok Sabha elections, will include the schemes which are running till now, be it welfare programs (PM Awas Yojana, Ujjwala Yojana, cleanliness related initiatives, electricity scheme etc.) etc.) Be it infrastructure expansion work or various development schemes, they will continue and will be taken forward. With some changes in that budget, concrete efforts will be made to accelerate the Self-reliant India campaign. Infrastructure development is the main basis of overall development and the achievements made by this government in this regard have been praised everywhere. So I think work will continue in that direction. These are the indications from the interim budget.
(These are the personal views of the author.)