{"id":35477,"date":"2024-02-16T18:08:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-16T12:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/2024\/02\/16\/rajiv-ranjans-analysis-interim-budget-2024-in-campaign-mode\/"},"modified":"2024-02-16T18:08:08","modified_gmt":"2024-02-16T12:38:08","slug":"rajiv-ranjans-analysis-interim-budget-2024-in-campaign-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/2024\/02\/16\/rajiv-ranjans-analysis-interim-budget-2024-in-campaign-mode\/","title":{"rendered":"RAJIV RANJAN\u2019S ANALYSIS : Interim Budget 2024 \u2014 in campaign mode"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Analyst is National president, All India Manufacturer\u2019s Organization, Chairman, National clusters development council.<\/em><\/p>\n

New Delhi (India), February 16:<\/strong> The Finance Minister presented her sixth consecutive Budget.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Finance minister\u00a0<\/strong>presented an\u00a0interim budget,\u00a0<\/strong>rather than a comprehensive annual budget due to National Elections.<\/p>\n

INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE<\/strong><\/p>\n

The government\u2019s blueprint<\/strong>\u00a0on<\/p>\n

expenditure<\/p>\n

taxes it plans to levy<\/p>\n

other transactions which affect the economy and lives of citizens.<\/p>\n

Article 112 of the Indian Constitution:\u00a0<\/strong>Union Budget of a year is referred to as the Annual Financial Statement (AFS).<\/p>\n

The Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs<\/strong>\u00a0in the\u00a0Finance Ministry<\/strong>\u00a0is the nodal body responsible for preparing the Budget.<\/p>\n

Components of the Budget:<\/strong><\/p>\n

expenditure<\/p>\n

receipts<\/p>\n

deficit indicators.<\/p>\n

Depending on the manner in which they are defined,\u00a0<\/strong>there can be many classifications and indicators of expenditure, receipts and deficits.<\/p>\n

Interim Budget:<\/strong><\/p>\n

A vote on account, also known as interim Budget<\/strong>, means that the government seeks the approval of\u00a0Parliament<\/strong>\u00a0for meeting expenditure for the first four months of the fiscal year (April-March)<\/p>\n

paying salaries, ongoing programmes in various sectors etc \u2014 with no changes in the taxation structure<\/p>\n

Until a new government takes over and presents\u00a0<\/strong>a full Budget that is revised for the full fiscal.<\/p>\n

Key Highlights:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Housing:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Government will launch a scheme to help deserving sections of the\u00a0middle class<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cliving in rented houses, or slums, or chawls and unauthorized colonies\u201d\u00a0to buy or build their own houses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rooftop solarization<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 one crore households will be enabled to obtain up to\u00a0300 units free electricity<\/strong>\u00a0every month. \u201c<\/p>\n

PM Awas Yojana (Grameen)\u2013<\/strong>\u00a0Two crore more houses will be taken up in the next five years to meet the requirement arising from increase in the number of families.<\/p>\n

Health<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Vaccination<\/strong>\u00a0for girls in the age group of\u00a09 to 14 years<\/strong>\u00a0for prevention of\u00a0cervical cancer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Government plans to set up more medical\u00a0colleges<\/strong>\u00a0by utilizing the existing hospital infrastructure under various departments.<\/p>\n

Upgradation of anganwadi centers under\u00a0\u201cSaksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0will be expedited.<\/p>\n

U-WIN<\/strong>\u00a0platform for managing immunization and intensified efforts of Mission Indradhanush will be rolled out expeditiously.<\/p>\n

Extension of healthcare cover under Ayushman Bharat scheme<\/strong>\u00a0to all ASHA workers, Anganwadi Workers and Helpers.<\/p>\n

Agriculture and related sectors<\/strong><\/p>\n

Application of Nano DAP<\/strong>\u00a0on various crops will be expanded in all agro-climatic zones.<\/p>\n

A strategy will be formulated to achieve \u2018atmanirbharta for oil seeds.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Focussed oil seeds: m<\/strong>ustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower.<\/p>\n

A comprehensive programme for supporting dairy farmers<\/strong>\u00a0will be formulated.<\/p>\n

The success of existing schemes such Rashtriya Gokul Mission, National Livestock Mission, and Infrastructure Development Funds\u00a0<\/strong>for dairy processing and animal husbandry will act as guiding light for such a programme.<\/p>\n

Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY)<\/strong>will be stepped up to:<\/p>\n

enhance aquaculture productivity from existing 3 to
5 tons per hectare<\/p>\n

double exports to ` 1 lakh crore<\/p>\n

generate 55 lakh employment opportunities in the near future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five integrated aqua parks<\/strong>\u00a0will be setup.<\/p>\n

Women:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Eighty-three lakh SHGs:<\/strong>The government aims to enhance the target for\u00a0Lakhpati Didi<\/strong>from\u00a02 crore to 3 crore.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Youth And Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the tech savvy youth<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 A corpus of\u00a0rupees one lakh crore<\/strong>\u00a0will be established with fifty-year interest free loan.<\/p>\n

The corpus will provide long-term financing or refinancing\u00a0<\/strong>with long tenors and low or nil interest rates.<\/p>\n

A new scheme will be launched for strengthening<\/strong>\u00a0deep-tech technologies for defense purposes<\/strong>\u00a0and expediting atma nirbharta.<\/p>\n

Infrastructure Development<\/strong><\/p>\n

The outlay for the next year is being increased\u00a0<\/strong>by\u00a01 percent.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This would be\u00a04 percent\u00a0<\/strong>of the GDP.<\/p>\n

Three major\u00a0economic railway corridor programmes<\/strong>\u00a0will be implemented. These are:<\/p>\n

energy, mineral and cement corridors<\/p>\n

port connectivity corridors<\/p>\n

high traffic density corridors.<\/p>\n

The projects have been identified under the PM Gati Shakti<\/strong>\u00a0for enabling multi-modal connectivity.<\/p>\n

Expansion of Metro and NaMO Bharat<\/strong>\u00a0will be supported in large cities focusing on transit-oriented development.<\/p>\n

Environment and Green Energy:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Viability gap funding\u00a0<\/strong>will be provided for harnessing offshore wind energy potential.<\/p>\n

Coal gasification and liquefaction capacity<\/strong>\u00a0of 100 MT will be set up by 2030.<\/p>\n

Financial assistance\u00a0<\/strong>will be provided for procurement of biomass aggregation machinery.<\/p>\n

Phased mandatory blending of compressed biogas (CBG) i<\/strong>n compressed natural gas (CNG) for transport and piped natural gas (PNG) for domestic purposes will be mandated.<\/p>\n

Electric Vehicle Ecosystem\u2013<\/strong>Support for manufacturing and charging infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Greater adoption of e-buses for public transport<\/strong>\u00a0networks will be encouraged through payment security mechanisms.<\/p>\n

For promoting green growth, a new scheme of bio-manufacturing and bio-foundry<\/strong>\u00a0will be launched.<\/p>\n

Blue Economy 2.0:\u00a0<\/strong>A scheme for restoration and adaptation measures, and coastal aquaculture and mariculture with integrated and multi-sectoral approach will be launched.<\/p>\n

Tourism<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

States will be encouraged\u00a0<\/strong>to take up comprehensive development of iconic tourist centers, branding and marketing them at global scale.<\/p>\n

A framework for rating of the centers based<\/strong>\u00a0on quality of facilities and services will be established.<\/p>\n

Long-term interest free loans\u00a0<\/strong>will be provided to States for financing such development on a matching basis.<\/p>\n

For domestic tourism<\/strong>\u2014 projects for port connectivity, tourism infrastructure, and amenities will be taken up on our islands. It will also include Lakshadweep.<\/p>\n

FDI<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

The FDI inflow during 2014-23 was USD 596 billion\u00a0<\/strong>marking a golden era.<\/p>\n

That is twice the inflow during\u00a02005-14.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Negotiating bilateral investment treaties\u00a0<\/strong>with the foreign partners, in the spirit of \u2018first develop India\u2019.<\/p>\n

Population Growth and Demographic changes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Government will form a high-powered committee for an extensive consideration of the challenges<\/p>\n

Reforms in the States\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0A provision of\u00a0seventy-five thousand crore rupees as a fifty-year interest free loan<\/strong>\u00a0is proposed this year to support reforms by the State Governments.<\/p>\n

Revised Estimates 2023-24:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Revised Estimate of the total receipts\u00a0<\/strong>other than borrowings is Rs. 27.56 lakh crore, of which the tax receipts are 23.24 lakh crore.<\/p>\n

The Revised Estimate of the total expenditure\u00a0<\/strong>is Rs. 44.90 lakh crore.<\/p>\n

The revenue receipts at Rs. 30.03 lakh crore a<\/strong>re expected to be higher than the Budget Estimate.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Revised Estimate of the fiscal deficit is 5.8 percent of GDP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Budget Estimates 2024-25:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fiscal deficit<\/strong>\u00a0in 2024-25 is estimated to be\u00a05.1 percent of GDP,<\/strong>\u00a0adhering to that path.<\/p>\n

The<\/strong>\u00a0scheme of fifty-year interest free loan for capital expenditure to states<\/strong>\u00a0will be continued this year with a total outlay of\u00a0Rs. 1.3 lakh crore.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The total receipts other than borrowings\u00a0<\/strong>and the total expenditure are estimated at\u00a0Rs. 30.80 and 47.66 lakh crore\u00a0<\/strong>respectively.<\/p>\n

The tax receipts\u00a0<\/strong>are estimated at Rs.\u00a026.02 lakh crore<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Direct taxes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The direct tax collections<\/strong>(last ten years)<\/strong>have more than trebled and the return filers swelled to\u00a02.4 times.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under the new tax scheme,\u00a0<\/strong>there is now no tax liability for taxpayers with income up to Rs. 7 lakh, up from Rs. 2.2 lakh in the financial year 2013-14.<\/p>\n

The threshold for presumptive taxation\u00a0<\/strong>for retail businesses was increased\u00a0from Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 3 crore.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The threshold for professionals eligible\u00a0<\/strong>for presumptive taxation was increased from\u00a0Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 75 Lakh.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corporate tax rate w<\/strong>as decreased from\u00a030 percent to 22 percent f<\/strong>or existing domestic companies and to\u00a015 percent fo<\/strong>r certain new manufacturing companies.<\/p>\n

The age-old jurisdiction-based assessment system<\/strong>\u00a0was transformed with the introduction of Faceless Assessment and Appeal, thereby imparting greater efficiency, transparency and accountability.<\/p>\n

ntroduction of updated income tax returns, a new Form 26AS<\/strong>\u00a0and prefilling of tax returns have made filing of tax returns simpler and easier.<\/p>\n

Average processing time of returns has been reduced from 93 days<\/strong>\u00a0in the year 2013-14 to a mere ten days this year, thereby making refunds faster.<\/p>\n

Indirect Taxes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

GST has reduced\u00a0<\/strong>the compliance burden on trade and industry<\/p>\n

Tax base of GST<\/strong>\u00a0more than doubled<\/p>\n

The average monthly gross GST\u00a0<\/strong>collection has almost\u00a0doubled to Rs. 1.66 lakh crore.<\/strong><\/p>\n

States\u2019 SGST revenue<\/strong>, including compensation released to states, in the post-GST period of 2017-18 to 2022-23, has achieved a buoyancy of\u00a01.22.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Number of steps\u00a0<\/strong>were taken in Customs to facilitate international trade.<\/p>\n

Tax Proposals:<\/strong><\/p>\n

No changes relating to taxation<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 same tax rates for direct taxes and indirect taxes including import duties.<\/p>\n

Withdrawal of outstanding direct tax\u00a0<\/strong>demands (petty, non-verified, non-reconciled or disputed direct tax demands, many of them dating as far back as the year 1962) up to twenty-five thousand rupees (Rs 25,000)<\/p>\n

pertaining to the period up to financial year 2009-10 a<\/strong>nd up to\u00a0ten-thousand rupees (Rs 10,000) for financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part A of the Budget:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is about recounting of policies already adopted, and to be adopted<\/p>\n

The Interim Budget focuses on all the \u201cwelfare\u201d schemes,\u00a0<\/strong>in areas varying from housing to food.<\/p>\n

Part B of budget:<\/strong><\/p>\n

While pursuing consolidation in the sense\u00a0<\/strong>of achieving periodically revised fiscal deficit to GDP ratios<\/p>\n

The government will be stepping<\/strong>\u00a0up spending on infrastructure and welfare.<\/p>\n

Controller General of Accounts(CGA) data:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It substantiated estimates of actual expenditure for the first three quarters of 2023-24 provided by the (CGA),<\/p>\n

\u25cf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Estimates for the Department of Rural Development(<\/strong>MGNREGA falls under it) scheme: As compared to budgeted expenditures of\u00a0\u20b91,57,545 crore for 2023-24<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u25cb\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The revised estimates\u00a0<\/strong>are placed at a much higher\u00a0\u20b91,71,069 crore.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Expenditure of the Department of Rural Development(December 2023)\u00a0<\/strong>amounted to only\u00a063%<\/strong>\u00a0of the total projected in the revised estimates.<\/p>\n

Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare(Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme:\u00a0<\/strong>The budgeted expenditure for 2023-24 for that department was placed at \u20b91,15,532 crore and the revised estimate is projected at \u20b91,16,789 crore.<\/p>\n

The actual(December 2023) is placed at\u00a061% of the revised estimate<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The explanation for the hefty increase is that income f<\/strong>rom dividends and profits is slated to rise from \u20b999,913 crore in 2022-23 to \u20b91,54,407 crore in 2023-24 (RE).<\/p>\n

The revised estimates suggest that the actual inflow\u00a0<\/strong>will be more than twice that figure at \u20b91,04,407 crore, largely because of transfers from the central bank.<\/p>\n

Capital receipts,<\/strong>\u00a0consisting of receipts from disinvestment from a budgeted \u20b961,000 crore to \u20b930,000 crore.<\/p>\n

The CGA estimates\u00a0<\/strong>that \u2018other non-debt capital receipts\u2019, consisting of disinvestment proceeds, just crossed\u00a0\u20b910,000 crore by December.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Possible Reasons for such deviations between actual spending and the revised estimates in the Budget:<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Finance Minister has chosen to inflate revised estimates o<\/strong>f spending to back her claim that the government has provided massive support to farmers and rural workers.<\/p>\n

The government plans to launch a pre-election spending\u00a0<\/strong>blitz in areas where it believes it can swing votes.<\/p>\n

Spending on the MGNREGA scheme<\/strong>\u00a0suggests that the government believes that rhetoric can be a substitute for actual allocations.<\/p>\n

Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the macroeconomic level, the Budget\u2019s claim is that in 2023-24,\u00a0<\/strong>the central government has managed to ensure that its receipts other than borrowing are almost equal to that budgeted.<\/p>\n

It has met budgetary expectations\u00a0<\/strong>with respect to\u00a0tax revenues a<\/strong>s well as expects to raise its non-tax revenue receipts by 25% relative to budget.<\/p>\n

There is a need to create an enabling environment for businesses t<\/strong>o thrive, the focus on environment-related issues, and the upliftment of the marginalized section of society<\/p>\n

Focus on the quality of growth<\/strong>\u00a0to ensure that it is equitable, sustainable and green.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Analyst is National president, All India Manufacturer\u2019s Organization, Chairman, National clusters development council. New Delhi (India), February 16:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[575],"class_list":["post-35477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prevalentindia.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}