Make it more transparent

The Budget shouldn't ignore provisional figures for 2023-24 and use the extra RBI surplus to better effect

Now that Nirmala Sitharaman has returned to the ministerial portfolio she held for the last five years, the Union finance ministry has got down to its most important task — preparing the Budget for 2024-25. An Interim Budget was presented by her on February 1 earlier this year, but that was only a vote-on-account, seeking Parliament’s approval for incurring a specified amount of expenditure till such time as the full year’s Budget is presented by a new government and approved by Parliament. Unlike a few of the previous Interim Budgets, Ms Sitharaman refrained from making any policy announcement or taxation