Budget 2024 | Alphabetically Yours: A for Anusandhan, G for GYAN, P for Prudence

Prudence, status quo and a focus on ''GYAN' — Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Interim Budget speech was her shortest ever, clocking only 57 minutes. This was shorter than the time many spend commuting to work every day. If you happened to miss her speech — commuting to work or not — here's the A to Z of the Interim Budget

were the key buzzwords. The government has announced a corpus of ₹1 lakh crore to help finance research in technology.

BOND markets breathed a sigh of relief on the back of lower gross borrowing and fiscal deficit estimates. The budget document pegs gross market borrowings in the 2024-25 fiscal (FY25) at ₹14.1 lakh crore, lower than the ₹15.4 lakh crore (Budget Estimate) for FY24.

CAPEX outlay for FY25 has been hiked by 11.1% to ₹11.11 lakh crore. This is in sync with what the market was expecting.

The DIVESTMENT target has been scaled down to ₹50,000 crore. The Finance Ministry's FY24 divestment drive had received a poor response.

ELECTRIC mobility remains one of the core priorities of the government. The Finance Minister highlighted that the government would encourage greater EV adoption in public transport but stopped short of announcing any new sops.

The government has hinted that it intends to stick to the FISCAL glide path. The fiscal deficit target has been set at 5.1% of the GDP for FY25. The Finance Minister, in her speech, said that the government intends to bring it down to below 4.5% by FY26.

The Finance Minister coined a new acronym, GYAN — Garib, Yuva, Annadata, Narishakti. She said it will be central to the government's Viksit Bharat roadmap.

HOUSING for the middle class: The FM announced the launch of a new scheme to help slum dwellers as well as those living on rent.

At 58 minutes, this INTERIM Budget speech was Sitharaman’s shortest ever. During a CII event in December, she had hinted that the February 1 Budget would be a vote-on-account with no spectacular announcements.

The FM claimed that Direct Benefit Transfers via JAN Dhan accounts, totalling up to ₹34 lakh crore translated into savings of ₹2.7 lakh crore for the government. This, she said, enabled them to grant more funds to PM Garib Kalyan Yojana.

The allocation under the PM-KISAN scheme remains unchanged at ₹60,000 per year.

Borrowing and other LIABILITIES, at 28%  will account for the highest source of revenue for the government as per Budget Estimates. This is lower than the 34% estimated for FY24.

The budget outlay for MGNREGA has been kept unchanged at ₹86,000 crore.

NO changes made in the capital gains taxation structure, as expected.

OMC (Oil Manufacturing Companies) funding has been halved to ₹15,000 crore. That's not all — the fund infusion has now been deferred to FY25.

PRUDENCE over Populism — the key mantra of the interim Budget.

It was a QUIET budget from the stock market's point of view. There were no major fillips or distractions.

The budget sanctioned ROOFTOP solar installations for one crore households, announced free electricity of up to 300 units per month.

Prime Minister Modi called the Budget a "confidence of continuity". He said if one spoke like economists, the Budget, with a higher capex allocation and fiscal deficit under control, would have hit the SWEET spot.

TAX receipt target for the upcoming fiscal has been set at ₹26.02 lakh crore.

The interim Budget has lowered the allocation for fertiliser subsidy by 13% to ₹1.64 lakh crore. UREA contributes 55-60% of the total fertiliser consumption,

A total of 40,000 rail bogeys will be upgraded to VANDE Bharat standards.

The government has expanded the scope of the Lakhpati Didi scheme, which offers skill development programmes to WOMEN in rural areas to help them become economically independent. The initial target under the scheme was 20 million. It has now been expanded to cover 3 million women.

The government is betting on what it claims is the ''trinity of demography, democracy, and diversity'' to serve as an X factor. The Finance Minister, during her speech, said that  "the next five (years) will (see) unprecedented development".

The FM also said that ''this will be a golden era for the tech-savvy YOUTH". Further, she added that the ₹1 lakh crore corpus for research will provide long-term finance or re-financing on long tenures at zero interest for sunrise domains.

ZERO changes to the income tax structure.