Omkar Dattatray
The union budget for year 2024-25 has been introduced & presented in Lok Sabha by the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 23rd July 2024 Tuesday. This is the first budget of the Modi government 3.0 and is the seventh consecutive budget of Sitharaman .The budget has been prepared with the focus on women, youth ,farmers and the poor .The union budget when studied gives the true impression that it is basically inclusive and people friendly .The new budget caters to the aspirations and needs of all sections of the society and at the same time it is pro people .Much stress has been given to the development of the infrastructure in the country .Due emphasis in the budget has been accorded to creations of job opportunities during the year and the finance minister has made great financial outlay for the promotion of the job opportunities because it has come to fore and the opposition parties also allege that the BJP has failed to gain a majority on its own in the recent Lok sabha elections .The budget has provided some relief to the salaried class and middle income groups and the standard deduction has been raised to Rs 75000.The budget ,particularly focuses on employment ,skilling ,MSME’s ,and the middle class and for all round prosperity .The budget also details nine priorities for generating ample opportunities for all and suggests specific actions and reforms required to realize the goal of Viksit Bharat and the budget is in fact the economic tool for making country a developed one and also is a road map for realizing the dream of making India an economic super power in future .Thus the foundation for realizing the dream of Vikisit Bharat of PM Modi has been laid in this budget .The main focus of the budget is on ,employment ,skilling ,MSME’s and middle classes .The announcement of Prime Ministers package of 5 schemes and initiatives to facilitate employment ,skilling and other opportunities for 4.1 crore youth over a period of five years with central outlay of INR 2 Lakh Cr .There is a provision of 1.48 Lakh crore for education ,employment and skilling is no ordinary thing .It implies that the government is serious about the unemployment problem .In tune with the Vikisit Bharat strategy set out in the interim budget ,the full-fledged budget envisages sustained efforts on the below given nine priorities with a view to generating ample opportunities for all.-1-Productivity and resilience in Agriculture.2-Employment and skilling.3-Inclusive Human Resource Development and Social Justice.4-Manufacturing and Services.4-Urban Development.5-Energy Security.6-Infrastructure.7-Innovation,Reserch & Development and 8-Next Generation Reforms .Substantial budget outlays will be laid on the above priorities in this year’s budget .A comprehensive review of the rate of structure over the next six months will rationalize and simplify customs duty rates to facilitate trade ,remove duty inversion ,and reduce disputes .Three more cancer medicines are fully exempt from customs duties. There will be reduction of the BCD on mobile phones ,mobile PCBA & mobile chargers to 15%.The government proposed to fully exempt customs duties on 25 critical minerals and reduce BCD on two of them .This will result in a major fillip to the processing and refining of such minerals and help secure their availability for strategic and important sectors like nuclear energy ,renewable energy ,space ,defense ,telecommunications ,and high-tech electronics .For development of investment and to bolster the Indian start -up eco -system ,boost the entrepreneurial spirit and support innovation ,the angel tax is to be abolished for all classes of investors .The budget proposes to attract foreign capital for India’s development needs .So corporate tax rate on foreign companies will be reduced from 40 to 35% .So for as income tax rates for salaried class and middle income group is concerned,the finance minister in the budget announced a marginal income tax relief for middle class.She raised the standard deduction -a flat deduction from total salary earned by an employee in a year before calculating the applicable income tax rate -by 50 percent to Rs 75,000 and tweaked tax slabs for taxpayers opting for the new income tax regime .The union minister Ashwani Vaishnaw said the 2024-25 budget includes provisions to simplify tax rates ,reduce taxes ,and help middle class families fulfill their dream of owning a house. A big relief on reassessment and reopening of returns filed for earlier year’s which has been reduced to 6year’s as opposed to 10 year’s earlier ,including search cases However ,looking at the benefits and deductions which a salaried person had to forgo for opting in New Tax Regime like House Rent Allowance ,Leave Travel Concession ,deduction under section 80 C and 80D and tax benefits in respect of home loan ,in most of cases ,the old tax regime is beneficial and the salaried persons should opt accordingly .The union budget 2024-25 while pursuing fiscal consolidation is largely focused on private demand revival with a slew of fiscal measures targeting the middle class, MSME’s and employment generation .The thrust to agriculture productivity ,infrastructure ,climate transition and rationalization of capital gains taxation regime are the deeper facets of the transformation that budget seeks to achieve .From banking perspective budget is pro -growth and offers scope for balance sheet expansion .In all ,budget remains grounded in domestic and international realities and has chalked the best strategy for future .On the tax front ,abolishing angel tax is a very bold move and will prove to be a game changer for start-ups giving more liquidity in their hands .This step will also contribute to reducing litigation and tax uncertainty .This move will make start ups more appealing and encourage investors to fearlessly invest in start-ups .Increasing standard deduction under the new regime will provide relief to the tax payers and boost adoption of new tax regime .This is also in line with the government’s aim of a simplified tax regime .The Vivaad se Vishwaas scheme will bring much needed respite to resolve pending litigation at various levels and help in quicker disposal of long pending litigation .Further ,the government aims to provide benefit to the middle and lower -income classes of people through its proposal of increasing the limit of exemption of capital gains u/s 112A to Rs 1.25 lakh per year ,from the previous value of Rs 1 lakh per year.2%TDS is being withdrawn on Mutual funds. Credit to TCL is proposed to be given in salary standard operating procedure of TDS procedure .The FM has given some relief to taxpayers by hiking tax slabs for personal income tax .The new tax slab will now have nil tax up to an income of Rs 3 lakh ,like the previous year.FM allocates Rs 1.52 lakh crore for farming and allied sectors and she says enhancing productivity and resilience in agriculture is her top priority .However ,fertilizers and food subsidies were decreased ,inviting flak from farmers..The total allocation for the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is Rs 1,22,528.77 crore .In the last financial year’s {2023-24} Revised Estimates ,the amount was Rs 1,16,788.96 crore. To sum up it can be said that the budget caters to the needs and aspirations of various sections of the society and so there is no exaggeration in terming the budget 2024-25 as inclusive and people friendly.FM gave a helping hand to the two alliance partners -JDU in Bihar and TDP and JansSena in AP of the BJP .Sitharaman’s offering to the two states started with her proposal for ”Purvodaya”-all -round development of the eastern region of the country covering Bihar ,Jharkhand ,West Bengal ,Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.FM announced an allocation of Rs 15,000 crore for Andhra Pradesh .She said the centre will set up airports ,medical colleges and sports infrastructure in Bihar.FM extended special help to Bihar and Andhra Pradesh ,addressing the aspirations of key allies-the TDP & JDU .Additionally ,Rs 26,000 crore has been earmarked for high ways in Bihar .But still the budget is a balance one and it has not been prepared only to please the two partners of the Modi government .The budget is in fact pro people ,pro youth ,pro farmer and last but not the least pro poor.
(The author is a columnist, social and KP activist)
