In a recent talk about money matters, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman shared some good news and hopeful plans. This was a kind of “in-between” budget before the 2024 elections. The focus was on helping people get homes, using more renewable energy, and encouraging tourism. Even though there were big promises for new projects and fancy trains, the government didn’t reach its spending target from the previous year – it was a bit less at ₹9.5 lakh crore instead of ₹10 lakh crore. Still, Sitharaman suggested a positive 11.1% increase for the next year, aiming to spend ₹11.11 lakh crore.
The goal to manage how much money the government owes got a bit better, dropping to 5.8% instead of the expected 5.9%. They plan to make it even less next year, down to 5.1%. Surprisingly, there were no major changes to taxes, even though there’s an election coming up.
Let’s see who gained and who faced challenges in this budget:
Winners:
Regular folks: People living in rented homes, slums, or unauthorized colonies got a chance to own homes. The housing plan, part of the ‘housing for all’ idea, got a boost with a 66% increase to ₹79,000 crore for 2024.
Farmers: Even though there wasn’t much money set aside for farming, the government wants to encourage private and public investments after crops are harvested. They also talked about using smart farming techniques with something called Nano Urea.
Tourism: The government plans to give interest-free loans to states to promote tourism. They’re paying special attention to Lakshadweep to attract more visitors.
Losers:
Selling government assets: The government couldn’t sell as many of its valuable shares as it wanted. The new plan is to get ₹300 billion by 2024, down from ₹510 billion. They hope to get ₹500 billion the year after.
Jewelry businesses: Hopes for a friendly money plan, like lower taxes and more spending by people, were disappointed. The government kept the tax on imported jewelry high at 15%.
Electric cars: Even though the government wants more electric cars and better charging spots, they cut the budget for this by 44% for 2025. Also, they didn’t mention making improvements to the electric car plan for 2024.
Building things: Despite aiming to be a $5 trillion economy soon and $7 trillion by 2030, the increase in spending on building things, like roads and bridges, wasn’t seen as big enough. Experts think more money is needed to fix the problems with the country’s infrastructure.
