The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharama presents the Union Budget 2024 in the House of Parliament for FY 2024-25. The first Union budget of the Modi 3.0 government is highly scrutinized as the budget will reflect the action plan of the newly elected government for FY 2024-25.
Budget 2024 Highlights
The Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman presents the Union Budget for 2024-25 at 11:00 AM in the Lok Sabha on 23 July 2024. This marks her presenting the Union budget for the seventh consecutive time in the Lok Sabha. The Union Budget 2024 is the first complete budget of the Modi 3.0 government.
The FM has highlighted the stability of India’s economy despite the global conflicts. In her budget speech, the FM mentioned that the inflation is under control and steadily moving to the target rate of 4%, whereas the core inflation rate is at 3.1%.
Ahead of the 2024 budget, the PM has said that India’s economy is rapidly growing, and the government will focus more on the Viksit Bharat goals. The current highlights of the Union Budget 2024 show that the finance ministry has focused on the Viksit Bharat goals by 2047.
The 2024 Union Budget has focussed more on Bihar and Andhra, employment, infrastructure, women’s workforce, IBC Tribunals, and many more. Let’s provide your major highlights of the Union budget 2024 for all the sectors.
Budget 2024 Nine priorities set by the Government
The FM identified the nine key priorities for creating better opportunities for India’s economic growth. According to FM, the following nine priorities for the FY 2024-25, where the government will focus more on providing opportunities to every citizen of India (women, youth, children, elderly, etc.):
- Employment & Skilling
- Urban Development
- Energy Security
- Infrastructure
- Productivity and Resilience Effort in Agriculture
- Next generation reforms
- Manufacturing & Services
- Social Justice and Human Resource Development
- Innovation, Research & development
Budget 2024 Allocations for Agriculture
The Union Budget 2024 announces the following allocations and enhanced policies for the agriculture sector:
- The government will provide ₹1.52 lakh crore for the agricultural sector of India and its allied sectors for the improvement and advancement of the sector.
- The government will release 109 high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of cultivation crops and 32 fields for the farmers in FY 2024-25.
- The government will promote natural farming for the next two years. The government will initiate natural farming for one crore farmers.
- The government will set up agriculture research to improve productivity through climate-resilient and high-yielding crops.
- The government will launch the Kisan credit Cards in five states in the FY.
- The government also confirms they will work on the self-sufficiency of pluses and oil seeds by taking six crore farmers and their land into the land and farmer registry.
- The government will facilitate the export of shrimp through NABARD by providing financial support for the shrimp breeding center.
Budget 2024 Education & Employment Key Highlights
- The budget highlights the 10 lakh loan support for higher education in domestic institutions to ensure easy access to higher education.
- The government allocated ₹1.48 lakh crore for skill development, education, and employment.
- The budget introduces a new scheme supporting and sponsoring skill development in collaboration with major industries and state governments, under this the government plans to make 20 lakh youth-skilled in five years.
- The government plans to upgrade the 1000 ITI courses in content and design according to the needs of the industries to give the youth industry-ready skills.
- The government will offer internships to one crore freshers, where the companies will provide a stipend to the interns from their CSR funds.
- The government produces three schemes for youth entering the workforce and employment-linked incentives. The government will provide a one-month wage for new employment to youth entering the workforce in all formal sectors.
- The first-time employees registered in EPFO will receive one month’s salary up to ₹15,000 in 3 installments through DBT.
Budget 2024 Infrastructure
The FM has introduced the following new allocations and projects for the development of the Infrastructure:
- The FM allocates ₹26,000 crores for road connectivity projects, such as the Buxar-Bhagalpur expressway, the 2-lane bridge over river Ganga at Buxar, Patna-Purnea Expressway, and Bodhgaya, Vaishali & Darbhanga, Rajgir spurs
- The FM announces ₹15,000 crores for the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act for industrial growth in Kopparthi & Orvakal node, Amaravati, and the backward districts of Prakasam, Rayalaseema, and North Coastal districts.
- The FM announces ₹26,000 crores allocation for road connectivity projects in Bihar.
The Union Budget 2024 has provided some tax relief for taxpayers with a 20% TDS rate in mutual funds repurchase and reduced the tax rate in the new regime in comparison with the old regime.
The Union Budget 2024 lays the roadmap of the current government in every sector, now the discussion in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha will be interesting to see.
