Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the last budget of the current Modi government on Thursday, February 1. In the 58 minute speech a lot was left to be desired by the salaried middle class of India as no changes to the Income Tax slabs were spoken of. This is an interim budget held in anticipation of the general elections to be held in April-May. The full budget is expected to be presented in July after the formation of the new government. This is the sixth budget of Finance Minister Sitharaman's tenure.
In the interim budget speech, Sitharaman abstained from introducing populist measures, keeping tax rates for direct and indirect taxes unchanged. Instead offering a vision for the next five years, Sitharaman predicted unprecedented growth, announcing a Rs 11.1 lakh crore capital expenditure for the next fiscal year, reflecting an 11% increase from the current fiscal year. Notably the government aims for a reduced fiscal deficit, targeting 5.1 % of GDP in the upcoming fiscal year, further aiming 4.5% in FY26. As this was the interim budget, the comprehensive fiscal year budget will be presented after the formation of a new government post Lok Sabha Elections.
The internet was also rampant with middle class citizens voicing their dismay at the Interim budget. Numerous users on X (Twitter) were understandably upset on the exemption of any benefits for the middle class. The opposition were also critical of the budget speech, with Congress’ Sachin Pilot saying that the speech was more akin to a speech one would hear at an election rally rather than the budget.
But as mentioned above, there were no announcements of note pandering to the common man. Here are the key highlights:
Income Tax Slab: The government has not given any relief to the common man in income tax this time as there was no change in tax slab.
Nothing has become cheap or expensive: This time nothing has become cheap or expensive in the budget. Why so? This is because after the GST implemented in 2017, only custom duty and excise duty are increased or decreased in the budget, which affects only a few things.
Focus of the speech remained on these 4 sectors:
For the poor: The government brought 25 crore people out of poverty. Rs 34 lakh crore sent to accounts under Garib Kalyan Yojana.
For women: About 1 crore women became Lakhpati Didi (women with net worth in Lakhs). Now the target is to make 3 crore Lakhpati Didi.
For the youth: Under the Skill India Mission, 1.4 crore youth were trained and 54 lakh people were retrained. 3 thousand new ITIs were created. Established 7 IT, 16 IIIT, 7 IIM, 15 AIIMS and 390 universities for higher education.
Annadata (Farmers): PM Modi’s Kisan Yojana was an initiative by the government that gave farmers up to ₹6,000 per year as minimum income support. In her speech, Sitaraman highlighted that 11.8 crore people have got financial help from PM’s Kisan Yojana.