The budget adeptly strikes a balance, prioritizing sensibility over populism, in an election year : Dr. Dipen Agrawal
No populistic measures were announced, as has traditionally been expected in pre-election budgets. The fiscal deficit target was better than envisaged. Prudence scored a decisive victory.
The finance minister’s focus on higher outlays for infrastructure will help boost the broader economy and, in the long term, boost investment activity. Addressing housing challenges by building two crore additional homes under the PM Awas Yojana-Grameen is certainly positive for boosting the housing sector and benefiting the middle class. Hence, the interim budget is balanced from the point of view of adhering to fiscal prudence, boosting infrastructure growth, and prioritizing focus on four key sections of the economy: the poor, women, youth, and farmers.
The large interest-free outlay will further boost our tech start-up ecosystem in emerging areas around 5G, generative AI, agritech, and health tech. The ₹1 lakh crore corpus that will be made available with 50-year interest-free (long-term financing or refinancing) to encourage the private sector to scale up R&D in the Sunrise domain is a welcome move for the sector. This will push India to be at the forefront of innovation and skill enhancement.
This interim budget signifies a landmark commitment to fiscal discipline, highlighted by a projected GDP of 5.1%. With Capex outlays increasing by 12% to 11 lakh crore and sunset tax laws extended to March 2025, the economic landscape gleams with promise. Initiatives to address post-harvest distress in agriculture, rural development, and the Rooftop Solar Scheme underscore a transformative journey towards inclusive growth and sustainability.
The budget showcases India’s unwavering commitment to infrastructure development, coupled with a steadfast adherence to fiscal prudence. This paves the way for sustained growth, steering the nation along the trajectory towards achieving a developed economy.
This budget has been one about consistency and continuity. The government has spent a lot of funds towards CapEx on infrastructure projects in the last two budgets. This budget was more of a report card of a decade of the Modi government’s economic policies, and it labeled out a vision of development, i.e., ‘Viksit Bharat’.