A Brief Highlights for India Budget 2024–25

India Budget 2024 : 

The Indian government recently presented its annual budget for the financial year 2024. The budget, which Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented, outlines the government’s plans for spending and revenue collection for the next financial year. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at some of the key highlights from India’s 2024 budget.

Union Budget Highlights 2024 25

Here you can check the union budget Highlights 2024 25 live updates from Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented in parliament on 23rd July 2024.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has started the presentation of her 7th Union Budget in Lok Sabha.

• India’s inflation continues to be low, stable, and moving towards the 4% target, the Finance Minister said.
• FM lays down nine priorities of Budget: productivity and resilience in agriculture, employment and skilling, inclusive human resource development and social justice, manufacturing and services, urban development, emergency security, infrastructure, innovation R&D, next-gen reforms. Subsequent Budgets will build on these and more priorities and actions.
• Budget to provide ₹1.48 lakh crore for education and employment and skill.
• Productivity and resilience in agriculture: Transforming agricultural research, our govt will undertake a comprehensive review of the agricultural research setup to bring the focus on raising productivity and developing climate-resilient varieties. Funding will be provided in challenge mode including to the pvt sector, domain experts both from the govt and outside and will oversee the conduct of such research. 
• She added that 109 new high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of 32 field and horticultural crops will be released for cultivation by farmers.
• Natural farming: in the next two years, one crore farmers across the country will be initiated into natural farming supported by certification and branding. Implementation will be through scientific institutions and willing Gram Panchayats. 10,000 need-based bio input resource centres will be established.
• Missions for pulses and oil seeds: For achieving self-sufficiency in pulses and oil seeds, the govt will strengthen their production, storage and marketing. A strategy is being put in place to achieve Aatanibharta for oil seeds such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean and sunflower.
• On vegetable production and supply chains: Large-scale vegetable production will be developed closer to major consumption centres. “We will promote farmer producer organisations, coops and startups for vegetable supply chains…,” said by the finance minister on the union budget highlights 2024-2025.
• National Cooperation Policy on anvil: The government will bring a National Cooperation Policy for the overall development of the country. Presenting the Union Budget 2024-25, she said the Centre will promote digital public infrastructure for agriculture in partnership with states, while Jan Samarth-based Kisan Credit Card will be introduced in five States. Also, the government will provide finance for shrimp farming and marketing.
• Government to launch three employment-linked schemes: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the government will provide incentives to 30 lakh youth entering the job market by providing one month’s PF (provident fund) contribution.
• Working women hostels will be set up in the country to promote women’s participation in the workforce.
• MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee) — aims to provide 100 days of wage employment in a particular fiscal year to at least one member of every household whose adult members seek manual work.
• Nirmala Sitharaman offers sops to Bihar, Andhra Pradesh but no special package yet.
• Mudra loans limit will be enhanced to ₹20 lakh: The  credit support for MSMEs, Mudra loans limit will be enhanced from ₹10 lakh to ₹20 lakh for those who have availed and successfully repaid loans previously taken under the Tarun category. 
• On PM Awas Yojana-Urban: Under the PM Awas Yojana-Urban, the housing needs of one crore poor and middle class families will be addressed with an investment of ₹10 lakh crore. This will include the central assistance of ₹2.2 lakh crore in the next five years.
• On water supply and sanitation: In partnership with States, and MDBs, the Modi-led NDA Government will promote water supply, sewage treatment and solid waste management projects for 100 large cities, the FM announced on union budget 2024 24..
• FM announces scheme to support development of 100 weekly haats or street food hubs for 5 years: Building on the PM Swanidhi scheme for street vendors, we plan a scheme over the next 5 years to promote 100 weekly haats in select cities
• High stamp duty may be moderated especially for women. This reform will be made essential condition for urban development schemes,” she said.
• Rooftop Solar scheme launched.

Highlights of Interim Union Budget 2024

“The Indian economy has witnessed a great transmission in the last 10 years”, said the Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Also said that the government is working to make India a Viksit Bharat by 2047. In the full budget in July, our Government will present a detailed roadmap for our pursuit of ‘Viksit Bharat’. This interim budget 2024 will empower all 4 pillars of Viksit Bharat. The 4 pillars are as follows,

• Yuva,
• Garib,
• Mahila, and
• Kisan.

This Interim Budget 2024 will guarantee to make India a developed nation by 2047.

The Finance Minister also says,

• The Capital Expenditure outlay for 2024-25 is increased by 11.1% to ₹ 11,11,111 crore rupees amounts to 3.4% of GDP.
• CapEx has a massive tripling over the last 4 years which made a huge impact on economic growth and employment creation.
• The Revised Estimate of the total receipts other than borrowings is ₹ 27.56 lakh crore, while the tax receipts are ₹ 23.24 lakh crore. The Revised Estimate of the total expenditure is ₹ 44.90 lakh crore.
• The revenue receipts at ₹ 30.03 lakh crore are expected to be higher than the budget estimate.
• The Revised Estimate of the fiscal deficit stood at 5.8 percent of GDP.
• The total receipts other than borrowings are estimated to be ₹ 30.80 lakh crore and the total expenditure is estimated at ₹ 47.66 lakh crore. The tax receipts are estimated at ₹ 26.02 lakh crore.
• The scheme of a fifty-year interest free loan for capital expenditure to states will be continued for 2024-25 with a total outlay of ₹1.3 lakh crore.
• The fiscal deficit in 2024-25 is estimated to be 5.1 percent of GDP.
• The fiscal deficit will be reduced below 4.5 percent by 2025-26.
• The gross and net market borrowings through dated securities are estimated at ₹ 14.13 lakh crore and ₹ 11.75 lakh crore
• The Government proposes to create an amount of ₹1 lakh Crore to boost private investment in sunrise technologies.
• Whole nation approach was taken to overcome the covid pandemic and free rations were provided for 80 crore people
• Direct financial assistance was extended to 11.8 crore farmers including marginal and small farmers
• Under PM Fasal Bima Yojana crop insurance is given to 4 crore farmers
• The interim budget 2024-25 has promised to step up value addition in the agricultural sector and boosting of farmer’s income
• Electronic National Agricultural Market has connected 1361 mandis and provided services to 1.8 crore farmers by trading worth ₹ 3 lakh crore
• Minimum Support Price (MSP) for ‘Annadata’ (farmers) has increased periodically.
• 38 lakh farmers had benefited through Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana and generated 10 lakh jobs.
• 2.4 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) were assisted through PM Formalization of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Yojana and 60,000 individuals with credit linkages.
• After the successful adoption of Nano Urea, the application of Nano DAP on various crops will be expanded in all agro-climatic zones.
• Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman laid made the strategy for “Amrit Kaal”.

• Enrolments under PMJJBY in Aspirational Districts increased from 1737 per lakh population in 2018 to 13195 per lakh population in October 2023.
• It is an important policy priority for our government to ensure timely and adequate finances, relevant technologies, and appropriate training for the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) to grow and also compete globally. Orienting the regulatory environment to facilitate their growth will be an important element of this policy mix.”
• Aligning with the ‘Panchamrit’ goals, our government will facilitate sustaining high and more resource-efficient economic growth. This will work towards energy security in terms of availability, accessibility, and affordability.
• Sabka Saath in the last 10 years, the government has assisted 25 crore people to get freedom from multi-dimensional poverty.
• “Direct Benefit Transfer” worth Rs. 34 lakh crore from the Government using PM-Jan Dhan accounts has led to savings of Rs. 2.7 lakh crore for the Government and helped to provide more funds for “Garib Kalyan”.
• PM-SVANidhi has provided credit assistance to 78 lakh street vendors and from that a total of 2.3 lakh have received credit for the third time.
• PM-JANMAN Yojana helps in the empowerment of particularly vulnerable tribal groups, who have remained outside the realm of development so far.
• The Minister announced 75,000 crore rupees as 50 year interest free loan to support the milestone-linked reforms by the State Governments for the growth and development enabling reforms needed in the states for realizing the vision of “Viksit Bharat”.
• 1.4 crore youth in the country have been trained and 54 lakh youth were upskilled and reskilled, and 3000 new ITIs were established through the Skill India Mission.
• A huge number of new institutions of higher learning, namely 7 IITs, 16 IIITs, 7 IIMs, 15 AIIMS, and 390 Universities have been set up in the country.
• PM Awas Yojana (Grameen) is close to achieving the target of 3 crore houses with an additional 2 crore houses targeted for the next 5 years. 
• The rooftop solarisation project will allow 1 crore houses to claim 300 units of free electricity every month. This will benefit in Savings up to 15,000 to 18,000 rupees annually, charging of electric vehicles, entrepreneurship opportunities, and employment opportunities.
• Green Energy, to achieve the commitment of ‘net-zero’ by 2070. The following measures have been taken,
  1. 1. Viability gap funding for harnessing offshore wind energy potential for the initial capacity of 1GW.
     2. Coal gasification and liquefaction capacity of 100MT to be set up by 2030.
     3. Phased mandatory blending of compressed biogas (CBG) in compressed natural gas (CNG) for transport and piped natural gas (PNG) for domestic purposes.
     4. Financial assistance is to be provided for the procurement of biomass aggregation machinery to support collection.
• Payment security mechanisms will encourage the adoption of e-buses for public transport networks.
• A new scheme of bio-manufacturing and bio-foundry to provide environment friendly alternatives like biodegradable polymers, bio-plastics, bio-pharmaceuticals, and bio-agri-inputs.
• Non-fossil fuel installed electric capacity increased from 32.3% in 2014 to 43.9% in 2023.
• Organizing G20 meetings in 60 places presented the diversity of India to a global audience and the economic strength has made the country an attractive destination for business and conference tourism.
• Projects for port connectivity, tourism, and infrastructure will be taken up on the island including Lakshadweep. 
• 5 integrated aquaparks will be set to boost the Fisheries sector. Since 2013-14, seafood exports have also doubled. 
• Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana (PMMSY) will be stepped up to:
  1. 1. Enhance aquaculture productivity from existing 3 to 5 tons per hectare
     2. Double exports to 1 lakh crore
     3. Generate 55 lakh employment opportunities in the future
• India is the world’s largest milk producer but with low productivity of milch animals. To control foot and mouth disease new programs will be set up under the existing schemes such as Rashtriya Gokul Mission, National Livestock Mission, and Infrastructure Development Funds for dairy processing and animal husbandry.
• It has been decided to enhance the target for Lakhpati Didi from  2 crore to 3 crore.
• 83 lakh SHGs with 9 crore women are transforming the rural socio-economic landscape with empowerment and self-reliance. It has assisted nearly 1 crore women to become Lakhpati Didi already.
• Empowerment of Women entrepreneurs with ease of living and dignity has increased in the last 10 years. While 30 crore MUDRA yojana loans have been provided to the women entrepreneurs. 
• In higher education, female enrolment has gone up to 28 percent in 10 years.
• STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) has registered girls and women enrolment of 43 percent, which is the highest in the world.
• To focus mainly on four major castes like
  1. 1. ‘Garib’ (Poor) – Garib Kalyan, Desh Ka Kalyan
     2. ‘Mahilayen’ (Women) – Nari Shakti
     3. ‘Yuva’ (Youth) – Empowering the Youth
     4. ‘Annadata’ (Farmer) – Welfare of Farmers
• The next generation reforms are ‘Reform, Perform, and Transform’.
• The government is working with an approach to development that is all-round, all-pervasive and all-inclusive (सर्वांगीण, सर्वस्पर्शी और सर्वसमावेशी).
• New Medical Colleges will be set up by utilizing the existing hospital infrastructure under various departments. 
• ASHA workers, Anganwadi workers, and helpers will also be covered under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme.
• In the last 10 years, the direct tax collections have more than trebled and the number of return filers swelled to 2.4 times.
• Under the new tax regime, the tax rates have been reduced and rationalized. There is now no tax with income up to ₹ 7 lakh, up from ₹ 2.2 lakh in the financial year 2013-14.
• The threshold for presumptive taxation for retail businesses was increased from ₹ 2 crore to ₹ 3 crore.
• The threshold for professionals eligible for presumptive taxation was increased from ₹ 50 lakh to ₹ 75 lakh.
• The corporate tax rate was decreased from 30 % to 22 % for existing domestic companies and to 15 % for certain new manufacturing companies.
• A new Form 26AS and pre-filling of tax returns have made filing tax returns simpler and easier by reducing the average processing time of returns from 93 days in the year 2013-14 to a mere 10 days in 2024.
• “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, and Sabka Vishwas” as the country is proud of our youth scaling new heights in sports.
• Chess prodigy Praggnanandhaa put up a stiff fight against the World Champion Magnus Carlsson in 2023.
• India has over 80 chess grandmasters compared to a little over 20 in 2010.
• For our tech savvy youth, a corpus of rupees 1 lakh crore with a 50-year interest free loan will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in the sunrise domains.
• To enhance the dignity of women the government has made the ‘Triple Talaq’ illegal, reserved 1/3 of seats for women in the Lok Sabha and State legislative assemblies, and given over 70 percent of houses under PM Awas Yojana in rural areas to women as sole or joint owners.
• Rise in female labour force participation rate leading to women led development increased from 23.3% in 2017-18 to 37% in 2022-23.
• According to a recent survey by a leading consulting firm, 94 % of industry leaders view the transition to GST as largely positive and according to 80 % of the respondents, it has led to supply chain optimization.
• The tax base of GST more than doubled and the average monthly gross GST collection has almost doubled to ₹ 1.66 lakh crore this year.
• States SGST revenue in the post-GST period of 2017-18 to 2022-23, has achieved a buoyancy of 1.22. In contrast, the tax buoyancy of State revenues from subsumed taxes in the pre-GST four-year period of 2012-13 to 2015-16 was a mere 0.72.
• The steps taken in Customs to facilitate international trade have resulted in a decline in the import release time by 47 % to 71 hours at Inland Container Depots, by 28 % to 44 hours at air cargo complexes, and by 27 % to 85 hours at seaports, over the last four years since 2019.
• The government is committed to empowering Amrit Peedhi, the Yuva.
• The government is mainly focused on more comprehensive GDP, governance, development, and performance.
• The government has provided transparent, accountable, people-centric, and prompt trust-based administration with approaches like “citizen-first” and “minimum government, maximum governance”.
• The exports will be doubled to ₹ 1 lakh crore rupees and this will generate 5 lakh new jobs.
• Implementation of three major economic railway corridor programmes will be implemented under PM Gati Shakti to enable multi-modal connectivity to improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost. They are as
  1. 1. Energy, mineral, and cement corridors,
     2. Port connectivity corridors, and 
     3. High traffic density corridors.                             
• Under maternal and child health care various schemes will be brought under a single roof and the improvement of Anganwadi Centres under Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, development of U-Win platform and Mission Indradhanush will be carried out.
• The Indian government is encouraging vaccination for girls in the age group of 9 to 14 years to prevent cervical cancer.
• The average real income of the people has increased by 50 %, inflation is moderate.
• Goods and Services Tax has enabled ‘One Nation, One Market, One Tax’. Tax reforms have led to the deepening and widening of the tax base.
• To unlock the entrepreneurial aspirations of our youth, 43 crore loans aggregating to Rs. 22.5 lakh crore under PM Mudra Yojana have been sanctioned.

The above mentioned points are the budget values presented by the Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Candidates can download the important points of the interim budget 2024 for the preparation of their upcoming competitive exams.

Union Budget 2024 Date

Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2024 on 1st February 2024 in the parliament.

“As the Lok Sabha election is near the complete budget will not be presented, after the formation of the new government the complete budget will be presented,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Union Budget 2024-25: Halwa ceremony

The final stage of the Budget preparation process for the Interim Union Budget 2024 is called the Halwa ceremony. This ceremony was held in the presence of Union Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman and Union Minister of State for Finance Dr. Bhagwat Kisanrao Karad and Pankaj Chaudhary. Every year Halwa ceremony is performed before the lock-in process of Budget preparation begins. Like the previous three full Union Budgets, the Interim Union Budget 2024 will be delivered in a paperless form. 

All the Union Budget documents along with the Annual Financial Statement (Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), Finance Bill, etc. as per the Constitution will be updated on the “Union Budget Mobile App” for easy access to the Budget documents by the Members of Parliament (MPs) and the public using the simplest form of digital convenience. The information will be available on Bilingual (English and Hindi) and will be available on both platforms like Android and iOS. Union Budget Mobile App can be downloaded from the Union Budget Web portal. The Budget documents have been updated on the mobile app after the completion of the Budget speech by the Union Finance Minister in Parliament.

76th Union Budget of India 2024 25: Union Budget 2024 Highlights

Candidates preparing for the upcoming mains exams and interview rounds should be aware of the Union Budget 2024 highlights provided here. The regular updates will be available here in detail for the Union Budget 2024 25.

The Budget adopts the following seven priorities. They complement each other and act as the ‘Saptarishi’ guiding us through the Amrit Kaal.

• Inclusive Development
• Reaching Last Mile
• Infrastructure Investment
• Unleashing Potential
• Green Growth

• Youth Power
• Financial Sector

76th Union Budget of India: Union Budget 2024 Highlights

On Feb 01, 2024, The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Union Budget 2024 in Parliament. Check the union budget 2024 analysis tabulated below.

To know all the key highlights of the budget 2024, Download the PDF given above.

History of Union Budget

• The Union Budget of India also referred to as the Annual Financial Statement in Article 112 of the Constitution of India, is the annual budget of the Republic of India. The Government presents it on the first day of February so that it could be materialized before the beginning of the new financial year in April.
• Until 2016 it was presented on the last working day of February by the Finance Minister in Parliament. The budget division of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in the finance ministry is the nodal body responsible for producing the budget. 
• It is presented by means of the Finance bill and the Appropriation bill has to be passed by Lok Sabha before it can come into effect on 1 April, the start of India’s financial year.

First in Union Budget

• The first Indian Budget was presented 160 years ago in 1860, by a Scottish economist named James Wilson.
• The first union budget of independent India was presented by R. K. Shanmukham Chetty on 26 November 1947. Total revenues stood at ₹171.15 crore, and the fiscal deficit was ₹24.59 crore.
• Until 2016, every year it was presented on the last working day of February by the Finance Minister of India in Parliament. But after 2016 Government presented it on the first day of February.
• The first Indian governor of RBI who presented the Interim Budget In 1951-52 was C D Deshmukh
• The first PM who presented the Union Budget Pandit was Jawaharlal Nehru in 1958-59.

Nirmala Sitharaman Creates History

• Nirmala Sitharaman is the first full-time woman Finance Minister in India as this position was only held by Indira Gandhi as an additional responsibility when she served as the Prime Minister.  
• In 2020, FM Nirmala Sitharaman set a record for delivering the longest Budget speech ever. She spoke for nearly 2 hours and 40 minutes.