Budget 2024 Key Highlights: Balancing Growth and Equity

Today, February 1, 2024, the current finance minister Nirmala Sitaramn presented the interim budget for 2024–2025 in the parliament at 11:00 a.m., where she focused on many sectors such as railways, solar energy, tourism, etc. Let’s see who gets what and what the budget highlights are for middle-class people like us.

• Railways: The government is going to make new corridors for energy, minerals, and cement Also, the government is focusing on converting 40,000 normal railway bogies to Vande Bharat standards. The government wants to connect industries to industries from different states and make transport easy using railways.
• Solar Energy: According to the government, around 1 crore households will be able to get up to 300 units of free electricity every month with the help of rooftop solar panels. This will help households save around Rs 15,000 to 18,000 per year.
• Tourism: The government is going to provide long-term interest-free loans to the state government for the development of tourist places. The finance minister also announced projects for the Indian Islands, such as Lakshdseep, and said that Religious would be developed under the tourism budget.
• Infrastructure:  Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (Grameen) would provide around 2 crore homes to families in the next 5 years, according to government data on 3 crore houses already made under the PMAY.
• Agriculture: The government is planning to invest in private as well as public sector units for post-harvest facilities such as modern storage and cold storage, which will help farmers.

• Lakhpati Didi: According to the government report, more than 1 crore women have already become lakhpati didi. Whereas the previous target of the government for lakhpati didi was 2 crore, the government set a new target of 3 crore.
• Tax announcements: The government has not changed anything for direct or indirect tax; the tax slab will be the same as last year, though the government reduced the time for processing tax returns from 93 days to 10 days, ensuring faster tax refunds.