Nirmala Sitharaman presents Union Budget 2024 in Parliament

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament. The Budget broadly focused on poor, women, youth and farmers. The nine priorities of the budget focus on productivity and resilience in agriculture, employment and skilling, improved human resources and social justice, manufacturing and services, urban development, energy security, infrastructure, innovation and research and development, and next generation reforms.

The Budget 2024 has given a focused approach to agriculture with a slew of measures. In a fillip to youngsters, the budget has a proposal of 20 lakh youth to be skilled over five years. Also, there is financial support for loans up to Rs 10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions.

In a major boost to the state of Bihar, Rs 26,000 crore has been planned for various road projects in Bihar, apart from plans to establish new airports, medical colleges, and sports infrastructure in Bihar. The FM has announced Gaya node along the Amritsar-Kolkata route that will offer a major fillip to the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor.

Recognizing the state’s need for capital, the Budget facilitates special financial support for development of capital city in Andhra Pradesh. The financial support is through special multilateral Rs 15,000 crore with additional amounts in future. Also, funds will be provided for various infrastructure development projects in the state. The government has also announced flood relief for the states of Assam, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

To continue strengthening the affordable housing sector, Finance Minister announced 3 crore additional houses in rural and urban areas under the PM Awas Yojana. The PM Awas Yojana Urban 2.0 will fulfill housing needs of one crore urban poor and middle-class people with the allocation of Rs 10 lakh crore for rental housing. Also, Rs 3 lakh crore has been allocated for housing needs of women and girls.

As a special attention to MSME sector, a credit guarantee scheme will be introduced for facilitating term loans to MSMEs for purchasing machinery.  Also, the government will support with dormitory type rental housing for industrial workers in PPP mode.

The Budget has announced the PM Suryaghar Muft Bijli Yojana that provides up to 300 units of free electricity every month for one crore households by installing rooftop solar panels. The government will also push for pumped storage of renewable energy. The Budget has also proposed to fully exempt 25 critical minerals from custom duties, and reduce basic custom duties on two of them. This will encourage their use in speciality applications.

The NTPC-BHEL joint venture will set up 100 MW commercial thermal plant using advanced ultra-supercritical (AUSC) technology. In an effort to strengthen the nuclear power sector, the government will promote R&D in nuclear energy sector. In line with this, the government will partner with the private sector for setting up Bharat small reactors, research and development of Bharat small modular reactors & research and development of newer technologies for nuclear energy. 

As announced in the interim budget, the government has allocated Rs 11.11 lakh crore towards capex for this fiscal year. The FM announced that the government would maintain a strong fiscal support for infrastructure projects for the next 5 years. Also, the Minister has announced the launch of the Phase IV of PMGSY in 25 rural habitations for all-weather connectivity.

The FM has reduced corporate tax on foreign companies from 40 to 35%. In the income tax rates, in a relief to salaried employees, the standard deduction has been revised from the current Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 under new tax regime. Also, in the new tax regime, the budget has proposed to revise the tax rate structure: Rs 0-3 lakh – nil tax; Rs 3-7 lakh - 5%; Rs 7-10 lakh - 10%; Rs 10-12 lakh - 15%; Rs 12-15 lakh - 20%; and Rs 15 lakh and above - 30%.