2024 Interim Budget Expectations: 5 Important Focus Areas

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the interim budget of FY 2024–25 on February 1, 2024. Let us discuss the five key areas that are likely to be the focus of the Interim Budget 2024:

Capital Expenditure:
The central government is likely to maintain its momentum on increasing capital expenditure, especially for the infrastructure sector, in the upcoming Budget 2024.

Jobs Creation:
The central government will offer a few incentives to increase investment in rural infrastructure and extend the scope of production-linked incentive (PLI) schemes to sectors such as chemicals and services to generate a huge number of jobs in the rural sector.

Fiscal Feficit:
Union Finance Minister Sitharaman is likely to opt for a further cut in the fiscal deficit to 5.3% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the budget 2024, despite the Lok Sabha poll pressure.

Social Sector Schemes:
The central government will allocate higher funds for social sector schemes in the forthcoming interim budget, as increased tax buoyancy may provide it with enough funds.

Consumption:
According to advance estimates of GDP, agriculture sector growth is likely to decelerate to 1.85 in the current fiscal year from 4% in 2022–23.