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Interim Budget 2024 | 6 key takeaways from Nirmala Sitharaman's speech
Budget 2024: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman made no changes in the taxation structure in which can be seen as a relief to taxpayers.
Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled her last Budget or Interim Budget on Thursday before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections this year, announcing a double-digit boost to infrastructure spending and flagging the government's "golden moments" ahead.
Nirmala Sitharaman also proposed a scheme that will allow people to buy or build their own homes, free electricity as part of a new rooftop solar programme and increased medical coverage for some government workers.
Nirmala Sitharaman also announced plans to increase milk and dairy production in the country. India is the largest milk producer in the world but there is low productivity, Sitharaman said. The finance minister also said a strategy will be developed for Atma Nirbharta for oilseeds production. Efforts of the value addition in the agriculture sector and increase farmers' income will be stepped up, the minister said.
Full coverage of Union Budget 2024
The finance minister made no changes in the taxation structure in which can be seen as a relief to taxpayers. Follow Updates on Budget 2024
"In keeping with convention, I do not propose to make any changes relating to taxation and propose to retain the same tax rates for direct and indirect taxes including import duties. However, certain tax benefits to startups and investments made by sovereign wealth or pension funds as also tax exemption on certain income of some IFSC units are expiring on March 31 2024; to provide continuity, I propose to extend the date to March 31 2025," she said.
Budget 2024: Six key takeaways
1. Nirmala Sitharaman stuck to fiscal prudence with a lower-than-expected fiscal deficit of 5.8 per cent (of GDP) in FY24 and an estimated 5.1 per cent next year - lower than estimated.
2. There are no sops or big rural transfers, but she announced building 2 crore more houses for the rural poor in the next five years under the continuing PM Awas Yojana (Grameen).
Sitharaman said the government is close to achieving the target of 3 crore affordable houses.
3. The country's capital spending for 2024-25 has been raised 11 per cent to ₹11.11 lakh crore, or 3.4 per cent of GDP.
4. No changes to direct or indirect tax rates. No change in tax structure.
5. The government will set up ₹1 lakh crore corpus with 50 50-year interest-free loan - long-term financing or refinance with long tenor and low or nil interest rates: to scale up R&D in sunrise sectors.
6. Average real income of people increased by 50%.
