Budget 2024: As FM Sitharaman is set to present Budget 2024 today, some of the experts say that she might make some announcements on the income tax exemption limit and taxation on the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation.
Budget 2024: Latest Updates: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Interim Budget 2024 in some time from now and the salaried employees across the country are waiting for major announcements on income tax relief. It will give a big sense of relief to the salaried employees if the finance minister makes any favourable announcements for them.
The Central government has received a tax windfall as a result of the economy’s substantial growth, which has assisted it in reducing the fiscal deficit. Financial experts say that FM Sitharaman has enough options to maintain the current level of infrastructure investment and implement specific measures to assist PM Modi’s election-related priority sectors that include women, farmers, the underprivileged sections, and the youth.
In the meantime, the Goldman Sachs has predicted that India will become the world’s second-largest economy by 2075. Interestingly, India is now the fifth-largest economy globally, behind the United States, China, Japan, and Germany.
Some of the experts say that FM Sitharaman during the budget presentation might make some announcements on the income tax exemption limit, announcements regarding the taxation on the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation, a boost to the FAME scheme, which incentivises Electric Vehicles (EV) manufacturers, increased allocation to PM Kisan, etc.
Last week, the Finance Ministry said the Indian economy will achieve a growth rate at or above 7 per cent for FY24, while some predict it will achieve another year of 7 per cent real growth in FY25 as well.
If the prognosis for FY25 turns out to be right, it will mark the fourth year post-pandemic that the Indian economy will have grown at or over 7 per cent. That would be an impressive achievement, testifying to the resilience and potential of the Indian economy, the Finance Ministry said.
“Some economists argue, with considerable merit, that not all growth is equal. They are right. It is one thing for India to grow at 8-9 per cent when the world economy is growing at 4 per cent, but it is another thing to grow at or above 7 per cent when the world economy is struggling to grow at 2 per cent.
“One unit of growth in the latter circumstance is qualitatively superior to the former,” the Finance Ministry said in a review of the Indian economy just days before the Interim Budget (Feb 1).
The marginal utility of growth in the second scenario is much higher. The global economy is struggling to maintain its recovery post-Covid because successive shocks have buffeted it.
Some of them, such as supply chain disruptions, have returned in 2024. If they persist, they will impact trade flows, transportation costs, economic output and inflation worldwide.
India will not be exempt from it, but having faced and seen off Covid and the energy and commodity price shocks of 2022, India is quietly confident of weathering the emerging disturbances, the review said.
This is not the Economic Survey prepared by the Department of Economic Affairs. That will come before the full Budget after the general elections.