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Finance Minister Presents Interim Budget with Key Focus Areas

  • 02 Feb 2024

On 1st February, 2024, Finance Minister delivered the interim Budget speech, highlighting sixteen crucial areas.

Key Points

  • Housing
    • Launching a scheme to assist deserving middle-class sections in acquiring their own houses.
    • Rooftop solarization to provide free electricity to one crore households monthly.
    • Expansion of PM Awas Yojana (Grameen) for an additional two crore houses in the next five years.
  • Health
    • Vaccination for girls aged 9 to 14 to prevent cervical cancer.
    • Plans to set up more medical colleges using existing hospital infrastructure.
    • Upgradation of anganwadi centers under "Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0."
  • Agriculture and Related Sectors
    • Expansion of Nano DAP application on various crops.
    • Formulation of a strategy for 'atmanirbharta' in oil seeds, focusing on mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower.
    • Stepped-up implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana.
  • Women
    • Emphasis on the empowerment of women through self-help groups (SHGs).
    • Target set to enhance Lakhpati Didi from 2 crore to 3 crore.
  • Youth and Technology
    • Establishment of a corpus of Rs. 1 lakh crore with a fifty-year interest-free loan for tech-savvy youth.
    • Launch of a scheme for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defense purposes.
  • Infrastructure Development
    • 11.1% increase in the outlay for the next year, amounting to Rs. 11,11,111 crore.
    • Implementation of three major economic railway corridor programs under PM Gati Shakti.
    • Support for the expansion of Metro and NaMO Bharat in large cities.
  • Environment and Green Energy
    • Viability gap funding for harnessing offshore wind energy potential.
    • Plans for coal gasification and liquefaction capacity of 100 MT by 2030.
    • Mandated phased blending of compressed biogas (CBG) in CNG and PNG.
  • Tourism
    • Encouragement for states to comprehensively develop iconic tourist centers.
    • Establishment of a framework for rating centers based on quality, with long-term interest-free loans provided to states.
  • FDI
    • Promotion of sustained foreign investment through bilateral investment treaties.
  • Population Growth and Demographic Changes
    • Formation of a high-powered committee to extensively consider challenges.
  • Reforms in the States
    • Provision of a Rs. 75,000 crore fifty-year interest-free loan to support reforms by state governments.
  • Revised Estimates 2023-24
    • Revised estimate of fiscal deficit at 5.8% of GDP.
    • Total expenditure estimated at Rs. 44.90 lakh crore.
  • Budget Estimates 2024-25
    • Fiscal deficit estimated to be 5.1% of GDP.
    • Continuation of the fifty-year interest-free loan for capital expenditure to states.
  • Direct Taxes
    • New tax scheme eliminates tax liability for income up to Rs. 7 lakh.
    • Increase in the presumptive taxation threshold for retail and professional businesses.
  • Indirect Taxes
    • GST has reduced compliance burden on trade and industry.
    • GST tax base more than doubled, with a significant increase in monthly gross GST collection.
  • Tax Proposals
    • No changes in tax rates for direct and indirect taxes.
    • Withdrawal of outstanding direct tax demands up to Rs. 25,000 for the period up to 2009-10 and up to Rs. 10,000 for 2010-11 to 2014-15.