Budget strikes fine balance between growth, employment, and capex: FM

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said the Union Budget strikes a fine balance between growth, employment, capital investment, and fiscal consolidation, among others.

Replying to the discussion on Union Budget 2024-25 and Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in Rajya Sabha, the minister also said the Budget proposes unflinching support to cooperative federalism.

"I would like to underline that our unflinching commitment to cooperative federalism. The total resources proposed to be transferred to the states in 2024-25 is estimated at Rs 22.91 lakh crore. This actually entails an increase of Rs 2.49 lakh crore over 2023-24," the minister said.Referring to general budget, she said the capital expenditure in the last 10 years of the Narendra Modi government stood at Rs 43.82 lakh crore, which is compared to Rs 13.19 lakh crore during the decade-ago rule of UPA.

Sitharaman also said the PLI schemes continue to remain attractive for the manufacturing sector.The budget is an exercise to make India an attractive destination for manufacturing companies, she added.She also said the government is complying with the fiscal deficit trajectory. It will bring down the deficit to below 4.5 per cent by 2025-26 from the targeted 4.9 per cent for the current fiscal.

The finance minister highlighted that for agriculture and allied sectors the budget has allocated Rs 1.52 lakh crore, which is Rs 8,000 crore more than the previous year.

For comparison, in 2013-14, the last year of Congress-led UPA, only Rs 30,000 crore was allocated for agriculture.She also emphasised that financial position of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has improved.

Sitharaman said J&K Bank has made a turnaround and posted profit.