From Free Electricity To Housing Loans, FM Nirmala Sitharaman Presents Budget 2024

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Budget 2024 in the Parliament today and gave her shortest Budget speech. Take a look at all the highlights of the Union Budget 2024

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Budget 2024 in the Parliament today, February 1, 2024. FM Sitharaman was presenting the budget for the sixth consecutive time, a record which levels with Morarji Desai. Today, Nirmala Sitharaman gave her shortest Budget speech of less than an hour; it lasted for just 58 minutes. From hinting at a possible BJP victory in the Lok Sabha Elections 2024 to the budget focusing on youth, downtrodden, women and farmers – take a look at the key highlights of the Budget 2024, as presented by the Finance Minister.

Budget 2024: Key Highlights

The Finance Minister presented the Interim Budget 2024 and said that it will have a prime focus on the poor, the women, youth and the farmers. From free electricity up to 300 units to housing loans so that everyone can fulfil their dream of owning a house, here’s what the Budget has in store for everyone.

1. FM Hints At Lok Sabha Election Win: “…Our young country has high aspirations, pride in its present and hope and confidence for a bright future. We expect that our govt based on its stupendous work will be blessed again by the people with a resounding mandate.”
2. Budget 2024 Focus: “We need to focus on – Garib, Mahilayen, Yuva and Annadata; Their needs and aspirations are our highest priorities.”
3. Skill India Mission: “The Skill India Mission has trained 1.4 crore youth, upskilled and re-skilled 54 lakh youth, and established 3000 new ITIs. A large number of institutional higher learning, namely 7 IITs, 16 IIITs, 7 IIMs, 15 AIIMS and 390 Universities have been set up.”
4. Nari Shakti: “Female enrolment in higher education up by 28% in 10 years, in STEM courses, girls & women make 43% of enrolment, one of the highest in the world. All these steps are reflected in the increasing participation of women in the workforce. Making triple talaq illegal, reservation of 1/3 seats for women in Parliament and state assemblies, over 70 % houses under PM Awas Yojana to women have increased their dignity.”
5. Sports Budget: “The country is proud of our youth scaling new heights in sports. The highest-ever medal tally in Asian Games and Asian Para games in 2023 reflects a high confidence level. Chess prodigy and our no.1 ranked player Praggnanandhaa up a stiff fight against the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen in 2023. Today, India has over 80 Chess Grandmasters compared to a little over 20 in 2010.”
6. Focus On GDP: “The government is equally focused on GDP – Governance, Development and Performance.”
7. On Inflation: “The economy is doing well. Inflation is moderate, the next five years will be the years of unprecedented development.”
8. Strategy For Amrit Kaal: “Our government will adopt economic policies that foster and sustain growth, facilitate inclusive and sustainable development, improve productivity, create opportunities for all, help them enhance their capabilities and contribute to generation of resources to power investments and fulfill aspirations…”
9. Health Cover: “The health cover under the Ayushman Bharat scheme will be extended to all ASHA and Anganwadi workers and helpers.”
10. PM Awas Yojana Rural: “Despite the challenges due to COVID, implementation of PM Awas Yojana Rural continued and we are close to achieving the target of 3 crore houses. 2 crore more houses will be taken up in the next 5 years to meet the requirement arising from increase in the number of families.”
11. Agriculture Sector: “For further growth of agriculture sector, the government to further promote public & private investment in post-harvest activities.”
12. Free Electricity: “Through roof-top solarisation, 1 crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity every month. This scheme follows the resolve of the Prime Minister on the historic day of the consecration of Shri Ram Mandir in Ayodhya.”
13. Defence And Self-Reliance: “A new scheme will be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting self-reliance.”
14. Medical Colleges: “Our government plans to set up more medical colleges by utilising the existing hospital infrastructure under various departments. A committee for this purpose will be set up to examine the issues and make relevant recommendations.”
15. Entrepreneurship: “For our tech-savvy youth, this will be a golden era. A corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore will be established with 50-year interest-free loan provided. It will be for long-term financing or re-financing with low or nil interest rates.”
16. Infrastructure, Tourism: “The outlay for infrastructure has been increased to Rs 11.11 lakh crores in FY25, To address fervour for domestic tourism, projects for port connectivity, tourism infra & amenities will be taken on our islands including Lakshadweep.”
17. Viksit Bharat: “Many growth and development-enabling reforms are needed in the state for realising the vision of Viksit Bharat. A provision of Rs 75,000 Crores as a 50-year interest-free loan is proposed this year to support those milestone-linked reforms by the state governments.”
18. FDI: “FDI is ‘First Develop India’… FDI inflow during 2014 to 2023 was Rs 596 billion US dollars, marking a golden era. This was twice the FDI inflow between 2005 to 2014. For sustained FDI, we are negotiating bilateral investment treaties with foreign partners.”
19. Full Budget In July: “In the full budget in July, our Government will present a detailed roadmap for our pursuit of Viksit Bharat.”
20. Fiscal Deficit: “…The revised estimate of the fiscal deficit is 5.8% of GDP, improving on the budget estimate notwithstanding moderation in the nominal growth estimates.”
21. Income Tax Slab: “I propose to retain the same tax rates for direct and indirect taxes including import duties,” says FM.

After presenting the Interim Budget 2024, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Finance Bill 2024 and the Lok Sabha is adjourned now, till 11:00 AM on February 2, 2024.