Interim Budget 2024: Economists say that the government will have to strike a balance between fiscal consolidation and capital expenditure. In such a situation, there is not much scope left for populist announcements or new schemes. Apart from this, there are generally no major announcements in the interim budget. The only exception is 2019, when PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana was announced.
Union Budget 2024 : A few days are left for the presentation of the Union Budget. Meanwhile, many speculations are being made regarding the Interim Budget . But, economists say that populist announcements are not expected in the budget to be presented on February 1. Samiran Chakraborty, Chief India Economist at Citi, said that past trend shows that new schemes are generally not announced in the interim budget. PM Kisan Scheme was announced only in the interim budget of 2019. If the government wants to maintain focus on capital expenditure along with reducing the fiscal deficit, then there is no scope for announcing populist schemes. However, small announcements can be made by the government. Like the government can increase the installment of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi. This can be increased from Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000 annually. Doing this will cost about 0.1 percent of GDP.
Fiscal deficit target may be fixed at 5.3 percent in Budget 2024.
Deutsche Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Das said that the government will try to reduce the fiscal deficit. The government can set a target of around 5.3 percent for fiscal deficit. The government had set a fiscal deficit target of 5.9 percent for this financial year. Experts say that the fiscal deficit is expected to remain within the target this financial year. The government has set a target of reducing the fiscal deficit to 4.5 percent by the financial year 2025-26. Experts say that if the government wants to achieve this target, it will have to reduce the fiscal deficit target every year.
Capital expenditure target expected to increase
Soumya Kanti Ghosh, Group Chief Economic Advisor at State Bank of India (SBI), believes that the government can present a roadmap of its major plans for the next few years in the interim budget. In this, the focus may be on programs like Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. He also expressed hope of increase in the capital expenditure target. With 13-14 percent annual growth, it can reach 3.5 percent of GDP in the next financial year. The government had set a target of Rs 7.5 lakh crore for capital expenditure in the financial year 2022-23. It was increased to Rs 10 lakh crore in the financial year 2023-24.
