Page 17 - Budget

Budget session of Parliament likely between January 31 and February 9

A brief Budget session of Parliament is likely to be held between January 31 and February 9, sources said on Thursday. President Droupadi Murmu will address a joint sitting of the two houses on January 31, they said. The government would present a vote-on-account or an 'interim budget' on February 1. The new government will present a full-fledged budget later. Since the term of the 17th Lok Sabha ends on June 16, it is set to be the last session of Parliament before general elections are announced. In 2019, the Lok Sabha polls were announced on March 10 and voting was held in seven phases between April 11 and May 19.

Disinvestment target for FY25 likely to be pegged below Rs 50,000 cr: Icra

Interim Budget 2024: For FY24, the Centre had set a disinvestment target of Rs 51,000 crore but has only been able to meet one-fifth of it so far

Best of BS Opinion: Mutual benefits, Budget and electoral tailwinds & more

Here is the best of Business Standard's opinion pieces for today

Budget and electoral tailwinds

With limited fiscal space, the Budget needs to take advantage of the ruling party's recent electoral wins

Interim Budget 2024: Govt may allocate Rs 2.2 trillion for food subsidy

The ongoing financial year's food subsidy has already surpassed the allocated Rs 1.97 trillion in Budget 2023-24

Steel industry hopes Budget will focus on infra, fair trade measures

Companies want support for capacity addition and anti-dumping measures against substandard imports

Will govt compromise on capex for fiscal consolidation ahead of polls?

National Democratic Alliance governments have not compromised on capex for fiscal consolidation so far, at least in their concluding years

Focus on infra, agri, education, sports in budget for 2024-25: Soren

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Monday held a meeting with officials to review preparations for the state budget for the 2024-25 fiscal. He directed the officials to focus on infrastructure, education, sports, industry, health, agriculture, electricity, water supply, road, housing and social security in the upcoming state budget. Taking stock of the preparations for the budget for the next fiscal at the state secretariat, the CM said that special focus should be given to villages, agriculture, farmers and youths in the budget. Strengthening the rural economy is the priority of the state government, he said. he CM added that a better budget should be prepared keeping in mind the priorities and aspirations of all the people. Welfare of the poor is the aim of our government. The benefits of state government schemes should reach the last person, he said. State finance minister Rameshwar Oraon, chief secretary L Khiyangte and other senior officials were also present in the ..

Interim Budget 2024-25: Funds to boost reach on fintech industry wishlist

They hope for provisions to ease financial burden on fintechs and tax-saving benefits to startups

Containing fiscal deficit at 5.9%: Low nominal GDP growth a challenge

The Budget had assumed nominal GDP to grow 10.5 per cent during 2023-24, but advance estimates have projected it to expand by just 8.9 per cent

Budget 2024: Bank privatisation plan unlikely before elections, says report

Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting Budget 2021-22, had announced the privatisation of public sector banks as part of the disinvestment drive to garner Rs 1.75 trillion

Centre expected to maintain fiscal discipline in Interim Budget 2024

Interim budget likely to prioritise fiscal consolidation over populist spending, anticipating fiscal deficit at 4.5% of GDP by FY26

Union Budget 2024: A breakdown of how India earns and where it spends

The Union Budget draws its major share from borrowings and liabilities, constituting the largest chunk of 34 per cent

High indebted Punjab, Himachal may breach BE of fiscal deficit in FY24

Punjab had over 40% debt as a proportion of GSDP in 2019-20 too, while Himachal Pradesh had 39.1%

Budgetary allocation to road ministry jumps to Rs 2.7 trillion in 2023-24

The average annual budgetary allocation of the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways has increased by 940% from Rs 25,872 crore per year during 2009-14 to Rs 2.7 trillion during 2023-24

LS passes Bills to cap age of GSTAT Prez, effect Budget duty changes

The Lok Sabha on Tuesday passed a Bill that seeks to give immediate effect to the changes in customs and excise duties announced in the Budget. The House after a brief discussion on the Provisional Collection of Taxes Bill 2023, passed the Bill by voice vote. Jayant Sinha (BJP) and B V Satyavathi (YSRCP) participated in the brief discussion on the Bill which is aimed at curbing speculative activities following changes in customs and excise duties in the Budget. Moving the Bill for passage, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, the Provisional Collection of Taxes Bill, 2023 seeks to obtain the authority from Parliament to provisionally levy and collect the newly imposed or increased duties of customs and excise for 75 days. This Bill proposes to replace the erstwhile Provisional Collection of Taxes Act, 1931 with a minor change that is technical in nature. The provisions of the Bill empower collection provisionally, during the period between the introduction and enactment of th

FM Atishi tables revised estimates of Budget 2023-24 in Delhi Assembly

Delhi Finance Minister Atishi tabled the revised estimates of budget 2023-24 in the Assembly on Friday, slashing spending on advertisements and non-yielding schemes while providing extra funds to the cash-strapped DJB. Delhi government sources claimed there was an encouraging rise in revenue of the government in 2023-24, hence no loans are required from the Centre. The revised estimates provide for an additional infusion of Rs 1,033 crore for the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in 2023-24, they said. Recently, Atishi had claimed that Delhi was staring at a water supply crisis and warned that the city may might face difficulty in sewerage maintenance due to funds crunch faced by the DJB. Sources said the Delhi government provided Rs 495 crore for road, rail transport system, gave additional Rs 471 crore for additional facilities at schools and set aside Rs 650 crore for pension of DTC retired employees, in the revised estimates for 2023-24. However, the budgetary allocations have been reduce

Govt may address inverted duty structure for certain products in Budget

The government is likely to address the issue of inverted duty structure for certain products in the forthcoming Budget to boost domestic manufacturing, an official said. Inverted duty structure refers to taxation of inputs at higher rates than finished products that result in the build-up of credits and cascading costs. The official said that the Commerce and Industry Ministry has shared a list of 13-14 products with the finance ministry to look at the inverted duty structure issues. "The ministry always shares such list of goods, where customs duties on components are higher than the finished products, We have given our inputs to the finance ministry to look at that. Inverted duty structure is not economically efficient," the official said. Inverted duty structure impacts the domestic industry as manufacturers have to pay a higher price for raw materials in terms of duty, while the finished products land at lower duty and cost. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to

Decision on old pension scheme before Budget session, says Ajit Pawar

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Thursday said CM Eknath Shinde has assured government employees demanding restoration of the old pension scheme (OPS) that a decision on it will be taken before the upcoming budget session. The state legislature's budget session is generally held in February-March every year. Speaking to reporters in the Vidhan Bhavan premises in Nagpur, where the winter session of the state legislature is currently underway, Pawar informed about discussions held with the representatives of government employees demanding the OPS. He said the government has received the report of a committee, set up to look into the demand. Notably, several government and semi-government employees in Maharashtra have been demanding restoration of the OPS, which was discontinued in the state in 2005. Under the OPS, a government employee gets a monthly pension equivalent to 50 per cent his/her last drawn salary. There was no need for contribution by employees. Under th

Union Budget 2024: What is Economic Survey and why it is important

Budget 2024: The Economic Survey is the official report card of the country's economy and is tabled in Parliament by the finance minister a day before the presentation of the Budget