Interim Budget 2024 Highlights: From record capex to Vande Bharat trains, key takeaways from FM Nirmala Sitharaman's speech

Interim Budget 2024 Key Highlights: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered her sixth back-to-back Union Budget in Parliament on February 1, 2024. She said the government targets to contain fiscal deficit at 5.1 per cent and announced a record capital expenditure (capex) of Rs 11.1 lakh crore for the financial year 2024-25. Stating that the economy staged a strong performance in the past 10 years, the finance minister said the government remains committed to making India a developed nation by 2047, as she unveiled the contents of her bahi khata to the country.  

"Besides delivering on high growth in terms of Gross Domestic Product, the Government is equally focused on a more comprehensive ‘GDP’—Governance, Development and Performance," said the finance minister as she delivered her Budget speech in Parliament. Here's the full text of FM's Interim Budget 2024 speech

Here are the highlights of the Finance Minister's sixth consecutive Budget: 

• FY25 capex at record Rs 11.1 lakh crore 
• Revised fiscal deficit estimate for FY24 at 5.8 per cent 
• FY25 fiscal deficit estimated to be at 5.1 per cent 
• Aim to contain fiscal deficit at 4.5 per cent by FY26 
• Gross borrowing target reduced to Rs 14.13 lakh crore for FY25 as against Rs 15.43 lakh crore for the year ending March 2024; net borrowings pegged at Rs 11.75 lakh crore vs Rs 11.80 lakh crore
• Government expects to get Rs 1.23 lakh crore from the GST compensation fund in FY25

• Three railway corridors for energy, mineral and cement spaces
• Government to implement three major economic railway corridor programmes 
• 40,000 train coaches to be transformed into Vande Bharat standards
• Target to take coal gasification to 100 lakh crore tonnes by 2030 
• Centre to grant interest-free loans to states for tourism 
• Special focus on women, the poor, youth, and farmers  
• Women: 

  • Women empowerment gained momentum in past 10 years through entrepreneurship, ease of living; women enrolment in higher education has risen 28 per cent 

  • Women share in STEM (science, tech, engineering, maths) enrolment stands at 43 per cent, one of the highest in the world

• The poor/underprivileged: 

  • Two crore houses to be erected for the poor over the next five years
• Youth: 

  • Emphasis on empowering the youth for the development

• Farmers:
  • Four crore farmers benefitted from production insurance scheme
  • 11.8 crore farmers benefited under the PM Kisan scheme
  • Rs 34 lakh crore already provided to the people through Direct Benefit Transfer scheme
• Housing scheme focused on the middle class in consideration
• Boost to mustard, groundnut
• The next five years to be fabulous for the economy
• India is on track to become a developed nation by 2047  
• Economic corridor connecting India with Gulf & European countries a gamechanger
• Government remains committed to achieving its goal of 'garib kalyan' for 'desh ka kalyan' (welfare of the poor for the welfare of the country)

• Key allocations:

  • Record Rs 6.22 lakh crore allocation to Defence Ministry, up 4.7 per cent vs FY24; defence budget 13 per cent of total Budget

  • Health Ministry gets Rs 90,658 crore, up 12.6 per cent vs FY24

  • Railways Ministry gets Rs 2.55 lakh crore, up 5.8 per cent vs FY24 

• Taxes: 
  • No change in tax rates
  • A few past tax changes to be revoked in a move that is set to benefit one crore taxpayers

With inputs from agencies