Key Takeaways From Interim Budget (2024-25)

Context- The Union Finance Minister presented the Union Budget for the next financial year (2024-25) in the Parliament.

About 

• Capital Expenditure (2024-25):

• • • It was raised to 11.1 lakh crore for FY25 from the ₹9.5 lakh crore in the preceding fiscal.
    • This could be 3.4% of the GDP.
    • The share of capital expenditure (aside from supply in useful resources) to total expenditure stands at 23.31%.
    • In 2024-25, the full expenditure is anticipated at ₹47.66 lakh crore, a 6.1% increase over the revised estimates of 2023-24.

• Fiscal Prudence:

• • • The budget estimates for the fiscal deficit for FY 25 was pegged at 5.1%, down from the revised estimates of 5.8% ultimate monetary yr.
    • Achievement of Taxation Reform:

• Direct Taxes: 

• • • Direct tax collections have more than tripled within the remaining ten years, with go back filers growing by 2.4 times.

• Reduction and rationalisation of tax charges applied:

• • • • No tax liability for income up to Rs 7 lakh underneath the new tax scheme, elevated from Rs 2.2 lakh in FY 2013-14.
      • Introduction of Faceless Assessment and Appeal for greater efficiency and transparency.

• Indirect Taxes:
• • GST unified the oblique tax regime, lowering compliance burdens.
  • GST transition was viewed positively by 94% of industry leaders; 80% reported delivery chain optimization.
  • GST tax base extra than doubled; average month-to-month gross GST collection nearly doubled to Rs 1.66 lakh crore.
  • States benefited from SGST revenue, displaying a higher tax buoyancy submit-GST.
• Customs: Import release time appreciably decreased at Inland Container Depots, air shipment complexes, and sea ports.

State-sensible Allocation of Central Taxes and Duties

• Allocation to Ministries:

• • • The Union Budget allocated a large ₹6.21 lakh crore for the Defence Ministry, accompanied by using Road Transport & Highways with ₹2.78 lakh crore and Railways with ₹2.55 lakh crore.

• For Example:

• • • • Education budget for 2024-25 seen at Rs 1.25 lakh crore, 14.5% higher than revised estimate of Rs 1.1 lakh crore for 2023-24.
  • Housing: New housing plan for the middle magnificence; 2 crore homes to be built underneath PM Aavas Yojana; Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Grameen) close to attaining goal of 3 crore houses, extra 2 crore targeted for subsequent 5 years.
  • Agriculture: Investment in post-harvest activity by both private and public sector support; Empowering dairy farmers; More efforts to control Foot and mouth disorder; Application of Nano-DAP to be elevated in all agro-climatic zones; Crop coverage has been given to four crore farmers beneath PM Fasal Bima Yojana; Five incorporated Aqua Park to be installation; Blue Economy 2.0 to sell aquaculture; Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matsaya Sampada Yojana; and Direct economic assistance to 11.8 crore farmers beneath PM-KISAN.
  • Renewable strength: Viability gap funding for wind power; Setting up of coal gasification and liquefaction ability; Phased obligatory blending of CNG, PNG and compressed biogas; economic assistance for procurement of biomass aggregation machinery; 1 crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity per month.

• Health Expenditure:

• • • The expenditure for the Department of Health & Family Welfare for FY25 is Rs. 10,000 crores extra than the revised estimates of the last FY.
    • But the allocation to the Union Ministry of Health is estimated to be 1.9% of the full expenditure, continuing the trend of staying underneath the 2% mark from 2022-23.
    • Healthcare facilities below Ayushman Bharat may be extended to all Asha workers, Aanganwadi workers.
    • Vaccination of 9-14 yr old girls for cervical cancer
    • Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0 to be expedited for progressed nutrition transport, early childhood care and improvement

• Railway Budget in a Glance:

• • Railway tasks have been recognized under the PM Gati Shakti Yojana for allowing multi-modal connectivity.
  • It ambitions to ‘enhance logistics efficiency and decrease fees’.
  • Railway Infrastructure: To amplify India’s railway infrastructure, three essential railway financial corridors have been introduced.
    • These include an energy, mineral and cement corridor, a port connectivity hall and a high traffic density corridor.
    • It emphasized that these corridors, at the side of devoted freight corridors, aim to boost up the country’s GDP and reduce logistic costs.
    • Additionally, there may be 40,000 normal train bogies to be transformed into high-speed Vande Bharat ones.

Conclusion

• The Interim Budget is a temporary budget that is presented with the aid of the government in an election year. It ranged from railways, tourism, healthcare, era, aviation, inexperienced energy, aquaculture, housing, and so forth.
• However, the new government will present full budget after the newly elected Lok Sabha, outlining the government’s financial roadmap for the entire fiscal year.

Source: Indian Express

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