Budget Breakdown: How India Charts its Fiscal Course

5 Jul 2024 , 01:27 PM

As India gets ready for Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s comprehensive presentation of the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2024–25 in the second part of July, excitement is growing. Let’s examine the processes involved in gathering information and consuming halwa prior to the budget being unveiled:

Fundamentally, a budget plan is a list of anticipated expenses and income for a given time frame, usually a fiscal year that starts on April 1 and ends on March 31 of the following year. This plan is carefully crafted by the Ministry of Finance, which makes use of forecasts and historical data to meet the changing demands of the country. Starting this procedure six months or more ahead of the Finance Minister’s parliamentary statement guarantees careful consideration and strategic planning.

These circulars are then distributed to field and disbursing officials, who furnish their department with details regarding the financial outlays and receipts for the past and present fiscal years, as well as their financial requirements for the next fiscal year.

Senior departmental authorities thoroughly analyze the data and estimates field-level officials present. After clearance or any necessary modifications, these numbers are sent to the appropriate ministries for more examination. The Finance Ministry then examines and compares them to the state of the economy and the resources at hand in order to determine their feasibility.

The Finance Ministry allocates funds among ministries and creates new public welfare programs following careful examination. The Union Cabinet or the Prime Minister are consulted in disputes over resource distribution before making a final decision. After the distribution of funds is finalized, the Finance Ministry works with the Central Board of Direct Taxes and the Central Board of Excise and Customs to project income for the upcoming fiscal year. This process results in a combined report that serves as the Union Budget. In order to receive input and guarantee efficient budgeting, the Finance Ministry interacts with stakeholders such as small business owners and farmers throughout.

The customary “halwa ceremony,” in which the finance minister and other officials partake of halwa, precedes the publication of the Union Budget. After that, the printing process starts, and all of the officials and employees engaged are kept secret within the ministry’s walls until the Budget is introduced to Parliament.

Parliament’s Budget Session, which runs from July 22 to August 9, 2024, will be the forum for discussing and presenting the Union Budget. On the opening day of the session, President Droupadi Murmu will address both Houses. Priorities for the budget’s focus will be labor welfare, tax reform, increased consumption, and economic growth.

It is anticipated that policies and efforts aiming at attaining a developed India by 2047 will be included in the interim budget, possibly carrying on the subject of “Viksit Bharat Budget 2024” from the preceding budget. Agriculture, education, healthcare, infrastructure, manufacturing, and taxation are among the areas the budget is expected to touch on. Industry analysts and experts are bullish about the reforms that will promote economic expansion, job creation, and higher living standards.

This complete budget comes after an interim one that was released on February 1 due to the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. The forthcoming budget is crucial because the Narendra Modi-led NDA government won these polls for the third time in a row.

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