Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman arrived at the Ministry of Finance on Thursday ahead of the interim budget 2024–2025 presentation. She was accompanied to the finance ministry by Pankaj Chaudhary and MoS Finance Bhagwat Karad.
Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections on Thursday, February 1, at 11 a.m., Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will deliver the final or interim budget (for the financial year 2024–25) of the second term of the Narendra Modi government. Plans are anticipated to be fiscally responsible with a focus on infrastructure spending but heavy on political messaging.
On Wednesday, President Droupadi Murmu addressed a joint session of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to kick off the Budget Session of Parliament.
In his capacity as finance minister, former prime minister Morarji Desai presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964. Sitharaman equaled his record in this regard.
The President stated in her speech that 2023 was a historic year for the nation and that, among other things, the nation maintained its position as the major economy with the fastest rate of growth.
She said, “The year 2023 was a historic year for India when it grew the fastest among major economies despite the global crisis. India grew about 7.5 per cent for two consecutive quarters.”
The last full Budget of Modi government 2.0 had proposed to increase capital expenditure outlay by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore in 2023-24, which would be 3.3 percent of the GDP. It was almost three times the outlay in 2019-20.
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