HIGHLIGHTS OF THE INTERIM UNION BUDGET 2024-25

The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament, today. The key highlights of the Budget is sourced from Ministry of Finance are as follows:

Interim Budget 2024: FM Nirmala Sitharaman’s Top  Highlights from the Union Budget 2024–25

  Social Justice

• Prime Minister to focus on upliftment of four major castes, that is, ‘Garib’ (Poor), ‘Mahilayen’ (Women), ‘Yuva’ (Youth) and  ‘Annadata’(Farmer).

‘Garib Kalyan, Desh ka Kalyan’

• Government assisted 25 crore people out of multi-dimensional poverty in last 10 years.
• DBT of Rs. 34 lakh crore using PM-Jan Dhan accounts led to savings of Rs. 2.7 lakh crore for the Government.
• PM-SVANidhi provided credit assistance to 78 lakh street vendors. 2.3 lakh have received credit for the third time.
• PM-JANMAN Yojana to aid the development of particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTG).
• PM-Vishwakarma Yojana provides end-to-end support to artisans and crafts people engaged in 18 trades.

Welfare of ‘Annadata’

• PM-KISAN SAMMAN Yojana provided financial assistance to 11.8 crore farmers.
• Under PM Fasal Bima Yojana, crop insurance is given to 4 crore farmers
• Electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) integrated 1361 mandis, providing services to 1.8 crore farmers with trading volume of Rs. 3 lakh crore.

Momentum for Nari Shakti

• 30 crore Mudra Yojana loans given to women entrepreneurs.
• Female enrolment in higher education gone up by 28%.
• In STEM courses, girls and women constitute 43% of enrolment, one of the highest in the world.
• Over 70% houses under PM Awas Yojana given to women from rural areas.

PM Awas Yojana (Grameen)

• Despite COVID challenges, the target of three crore houses under PM Awas Yojana (Grameen) will be achieved soon.
• Two crore more houses to be taken up in the next five years.

Rooftop solarization and muft bijli

• 1 crore households to obtain 300 units free electricity every month through rooftop solarization.
• Each household is expected to save Rs.15000 to Rs.18000 annually.

Ayushman Bharat

• Healthcare cover under Ayushman Bharat scheme to be extended to all ASHA workers, Anganwadi Workers and Helpers.

Agriculture and food processing

• Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana has benefitted 38 lakh farmers and generated 10 lakh employment.
• Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Yojana has assisted 2.4 lakh SHGs and 60000 individuals with credit linkages.

Research and Innovation for catalyzing growth, employment and development

• A corpus of Rs.1 lakh crore to be established with fifty-year interest free loan to provide long-term financing or refinancing with long tenors and low or nil interest rates.
• A new scheme to be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting ‘atmanirbharta’.

Infrastructure

• Capital expenditure outlay for Infrastructure development and employment generation to be increased by 11.1 per cent to Rs.11,11,111 crore, that will be 3.4 per cent of the GDP.

Railways

• 3 major economic railway corridor programmes identified under the PM Gati Shakti to be implemented to improve logistics efficiency and reduce cost
  • Energy, mineral and cement corridors
  • Port connectivity corridors
  • High traffic density corridors
• Forty thousand normal rail bogies to be converted to Vande Bharat standards.

Aviation Sector

• Number of airports in the country doubled to 149.
• Five hundred and seventeen new routes are carrying 1.3 crore passengers.
• Indian carriers have placed orders for over 1000 new aircrafts.

Green Energy

• Coal gasification and liquefaction capacity of 100 MT to be set up by 2030.
• Phased mandatory blending of compressed biogas (CBG) in compressed natural gas (CNG) for transport and piped natural gas (PNG) for domestic purposes to be mandated.

Tourism sector

• States to be encouraged to take up comprehensive development of iconic tourist centres including their branding and marketing at global scale.
• Framework for rating of the tourist centres based on quality of facilities and services to be established.
• Long-term interest free loans to be provided to States for financing such development on matching basis.

Investments

• FDI inflow during 2014-23 of USD 596 billion was twice of the inflow during 2005-14.

Reforms in the States for ‘Viksit Bharat’

• A provision of Rs.75,000 crore rupees as fifty-year interest free loan is proposed to support milestone-linked reforms by the State Governments.

Revised Estimates (RE) 2023-24

• RE of the total receipts other than borrowings is Rs.27.56 lakh crore, of which the tax receipts are Rs.23.24 lakh crore.
• RE of the total expenditure is Rs.44.90 lakh crore.
• Revenue receipts at Rs.30.03 lakh crore are expected to be higher than the Budget Estimate, reflecting strong growth momentum and formalization in the economy.
• RE of the fiscal deficit is 5.8 per cent of GDP for 2023-24.

Budget Estimates 2024-25

• Total receipts other than borrowings and the total expenditure are estimated at Rs.30.80 and Rs.47.66 lakh crore respectively.
• Tax receipts are estimated at Rs.26.02 lakh crore.
• Scheme of fifty-year interest free loan for capital expenditure to states to be continued this year with total outlay of Rs.1.3 lakh crore.
• Fiscal deficit in 2024-25 is estimated to be 5.1 per cent of GDP
• Gross and net market borrowings through dated securities during 2024-25 are estimated at Rs.14.13 and Rs.11.75 lakh crore respectively.

These are the major tax-related updates in the Union Budget 2024

Direct taxes

• FM proposes to retain same tax rates for direct taxes
• Direct tax collection tripled, return filers increased to 2.4 times, in the last 10 years
• Government to improve tax payer services
  • Outstanding direct tax demands upto Rs 25000 pertaining to the period upto FY 2009-10 withdrawn
  • Outstanding direct tax demands upto Rs 10000 for financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15 withdrawn
  • This will benefit one crore tax payers
• Tax benefits to Start-Ups, investments made by Sovereign wealth funds or pension funds extended to 31.03.2025
• Tax exemption on certain income of IFSC units extended by a year to 31.03.2025 from 31.03.2024

Indirect taxes

• FM proposes to retain same tax rates for indirect taxes and import duties
• GST unified the highly fragmented indirect tax regime in India
  • Average monthly gross GST collection doubled to Rs 1.66 lakh crore this year
  • GST tax base has doubled
  • State  SGST revenue buoyancy (including compensation released to states) increased to 1.22  in post-GST period(2017-18 to 2022-23) from 0.72 in the pre-GST period (2012-13 to 2015-16)
  • 94% of industry leaders view transition to GST as largely positive
  • GST led to supply chain optimization
  • GST reduced the compliance burden on trade and industry
  • Lower logistics cost and taxes  helped reduce prices of goods and services, benefiting the consumers

Tax rationalization efforts over the years

• No tax liability for income upto Rs 7 lakh, up from Rs 2.2 lakh in  FY 2013-14
• Presumptive taxation threshold for retail businesses increased to Rs 3 crore from Rs 2 crore
• Presumptive taxation threshold for professionals increased to Rs 75 lakh from Rs 50 lakh
• Corporate income tax decreased to 22% from 30% for existing domestic companies
• Corporate income tax rate at 15% for new manufacturing companies

Achievements in tax-payer services

• Average processing time of tax returns has reduced to 10 days from 93 days in 2013-14
• Faceless Assessment and Appeal introduced for greater efficiency
• Updated income tax returns, new form 26AS and prefilled tax returns for simplified return filing
• Reforms in customs leading to reduced Import release time
  • Reduction by 47% to 71 hours at Inland Container Depots
  • Reduction by 28% to 44 hours at  Air Cargo complexes
  • Reduction by 27% to 85 hours at Sea Ports

Economy-Then and Now

• In 2014 there was a responsibility to mend the economy and put governance systems in order. The need of the hour was to:
  • Attract investments
  • Build support to the much-needed reforms
  • Give hope to the people