The Union Budget, also comprising the Railway Budget, will be presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1. This will be the last full Budget of the Modi-led central government as the next Lok Sabha election is due in April-May of 2024. Ahead of this, citizens across a wide segment of society have voiced their expectations. Among these, home makers said that rising inflation is eating into their household budgets, making it difficult for them to put a leash on their expenses.
They said the rising prices of essential food items and LPG cylinders have added to their woes and Budget 2023 should address these issues.
The prices of essential commodities like rice, pulses, wheat, wheat flour, sugar etc. have skyrocketed beyond expectations in the last one year. Homemakers, hence, expect the Finance Minister to lessen the burden on their family budget.
Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), in its Budget memorandum, also mentioned the same and said that to mitigate food inflation, resolute action backed with hard data is required at multiple points and among multiple stakeholders.
Suggesting the way out, FICCI said that this can be done only by an efficient structure, backed by the authority of the PMO.
"A Food Inflation Response and Strategy Team be set-up to create an e-enabled, empowered coordination framework which can work with and across multiple key governmental agencies, to proactively address food inflation through logistical strategies in the short term. In the long-term learnings must be captured to form the basis of agricultural production and distribution planning for supply side management of inflation," it said.
Meanwhile, inflation in India is expected to come down from 6.8 percent in the current fiscal year ending March 31 to 5 percent the next fiscal, and then drop further to 4 percent in 2024, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Tuesday.
“Inflation in India as in other countries is expected to come down from 6.8 percent in 2022 to 5 percent in 2023 and then 4 percent coming towards the target in 2024,” Daniel Leigh, Division Chief, Research Department of the IMF was quoted as saying in a PTI report.
