TOP BUDGET STORIES

The Union Budget is an annual financial statement of the government. Every year, the government presents to the country the details of its revenues and expenditure of the previous year and its plans for the upcoming year. Presented on February 1 by the finance minister of the country, the Union Budget also lays down policy changes that it intends to implement during the year such as changes in taxation policy, which usually come into effect from April 1.

The finance minister presents the Union budget on February 1. Also known as the annual financial statement of the government, the Budget is prepared by the Finance Ministry’s Department of Economic Affairs in consultation with other ministries, NITI Aayog, and other stakeholders. Before the Budget, the finance ministry also holds meetings with industry leaders, economists, farmers, among others, to seek their views.

Budget speeches usually last 90-120 minutes. However, it depends on each finance minister. Nirmala Sitharaman’s 2020 budget speech was the longest in independent India’s history, lasting 160 minutes. In terms of word count, Manmohan Singh delivered the longest Budget speech in 1991, with the speech containing 18,650 words, while the shortest speech was delivered by Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977, which had only 800 words. Read more...

The Indian Union Budget consists of the government’s annual financial statement, which gives details of its revenues, expenditure, fiscal deficit, and borrowing. It also consists of the government’s plan to spend on the country’s development and infrastructure through capital expenditure and expenditure on various schemes. Read more here...

The government mainly generates revenues from different types of taxes such as income tax, corporate tax, goods and services tax, excise and custom duties. It can also generate money from market borrowing and disinvestment of public sector units. Out of that revenue, the government spends on the country’s infrastructure such as roads, railways, health, education, defence, and key government schemes. Read more...

Union Budget 2023 is important as it is the last full-year budget before the General Elections in 2024. Since the Budget contains key announcements for an entire year, it becomes important from the political point of view of the government, which will seek to come to power again next year. Before the elections, the government will get to present another Budget in February 2024, but it will be an interim one.

For a few years now, the biggest highlight of the government has been its push for growth through big capital expenditure. In 2022-23, the government announced a record capital expenditure of Rs 7.5 trillion in a bid to support the economy coming out of the pandemic-led slowdown. In the upcoming Budget, the government is expected to continue with big capital expenditure. However, the announcement needs to be read with a pinch of salt. Here’s why:

The government has been supporting the rural economy through various schemes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. In the past few years, the government has been forced to spend more than budgeted due to the distress in the rural economy. Since this year, the rural economy has suffered from high inflation and negative real wage growth, all eyes would be on Budget announcements for rural India. Read more...

The government did not announce any changes in income tax slab in 2022. However, it introduced changes to make Income Tax Returns filing easier by allowing a one-time window to correct omissions and the tax deduction limit for state government employees contribution to NPS raised to 14% from 10%. Read more...