With the ‘mantra’ of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, and Sabka Vishwas’ and the whole of nation approach of “Sabka Prayas”, the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Interim Union Budget 2024-25 in Parliament, today. The key highlights of the Budget are as follows:

 

 

Interim Budget 2024 Highlights – No change in tax rates, SOPs for EV and more

 

Fiscal Deficit

For the financial year 23-24 fiscal deficit stood at 5.8% which the government is aiming to bring it further down to 5.1% in the financial year 2024-25. The government also targets to reduce the fiscal deficit further to 4.5% of the GDP in the financial year 2025-26.

 

Income Tax

The direct tax slab rate have been kept unchanged. But the government has incentivise the tax payers to by withdrawing outstanding direct tax demands upto Rs. 25,000 for the period upto financial year 2009-10 and upto Rs. 10,000 for financial years 2010-11 to 2014-15.

 

Due to enhanced digitization and revamping the income tax website with advance technology, currently the time taken to processing the income tax filing has reduced to 10 days from 90 days in the year 2013-14. Also, the number of tax filers have grown to 2.5 times and the tax collection has been tripled since 2014. In the year 2024-25, the tax receipts are projected at Rs 26.02 lakh crores.

 

Startups

The tax exemptions given to startups which were upto 31-Mar-2023 have been extended to 31-Mar-2025.

 

Railways 

The government has proposed to 3 major economic railway corridor programs. They are –

• Energy, mineral and cement corridors
• Port connectivity corridors
• high traffic density corridors

These measure will help in reducing logistic costs, improve mobility and high travel speed for passengers.

The Government has also proposed to revamp the 40,000 normal train bogies into the standards of vandey bharat train.

 

Youth

This will be a golden era for tech-savvy youth. The government has proposed to establish a corpus of Rs. 1 lakh crores with 50 years interest free loan. The corpus will provide long term financing and re-financing with long tenures at low or nil interest rates.

 

Medical colleges

The government plans to set up more medical colleges through utilisation of the “existing hospital infrastructure under various departments”. “A committee for this purpose will be set up to examine the issues and make relevant recommendations,” Sithraman said.

 

Solarization

Roof top solarisation will enable 1 crore households to obtain 300 units of free electricity every month.

 

Tourism

To encourage tourism development in states, long terms interest free loans will be provided.

 

EV

 

The Finance Minister has revealed the government’s intention to enhance the charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and foster the use of electric mobility in public transportation. This initiative is expected to not only open up entrepreneurship opportunities for a multitude of vendors involved in supply and installation but also create employment prospects for young individuals possessing technical skills in manufacturing, installation, and maintenance.

In the previous year’s budget, ₹5,172 crore was allocated for the FAME II scheme, and its duration was extended by a year to provide incentives for the purchase of electric vehicles. Additionally, the government plans to implement eco-friendly measures by encouraging the public to opt for public transportation and endorsing the adoption of electric buses for public transport services.