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BUSINESS EYE FEBRUARY 09, 2024 | The Indian Eye 34

Interim Budget: With eyes on

elections, Govt focuses on growth,

poverty and women

Opposition says the budget lacks accountability, vision and ignores unemployment

OUR BUREAU
New Delhi
he government presented the interim bud-
get for 2024-2025 in Parliament on Thursday
Twith focus on economic policies that foster
growth, facilitate inclusive development, improve
productivity, create opportunities for various sec-
tions while noting that it will pay utmost attention to
eastern region including states of Bihar, Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh, Odisha, and West Bengal to make
them growth engines as part of goal to make India
a developed country by 2047.
No change was proposed in the tax rates in
the interim budget with Finance Minister Nirmala
Sitharaman announcing that the government will
form a high-powered committee for an extensive
consideration of the challenges arising from fast
population and that it will present a white paper
on the economic performance of 10 years of BJP-
led government compared to previous 10 years of
Congress-led UPA government.
This was the last budget of the Modi govern-
ment in its second term with Lok Sabha polls ex-
pected in April-May this year. Sitharaman, who Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sithaman addresses the press conference after presenting the Union Interim
presented her sixth budget in Lok Sabha, expressed Budget 2024 at Parliament at the National Media Centre in New Delhi on Thursday (ANI Photo/Jitender Gupta)
confidence of BJP-led NDA coming to power again.
“In the full budget in July, our Government proach to the economy and governance is that “it Sitharaman announced amidst thumping of
will present a detailed roadmap for our pursuit of is biased in favour of the rich”. “It is a government desks that the Indian economy has witnessed pro-
‘Viksit Bharat’,” she said. of the rich, by the rich and for the rich,” he alleged. found positive transformation in the last ten years
In his remarks following the interim budget, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge said the inter- and the people of India are looking ahead to the
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it was “an in- im budget lacked accountability and vision. future with hope and optimism.
clusive and innovative budget.” In a major announcement, the Finance Minis- “Conditions were created for more opportu-
“This budget carries the confidence of continu- ter said that the scheme of fifty-year interest-free nities for employment and entrepreneurship. The
ity. It will empower all pillars of developed India loan for capital expenditure to states will be contin- economy got a new vigour. The fruits of devel-
- the youth, the poor, women, and farmers,” he said. ued this year with total outlay of Rs 1.3 lakh crore. opment started reaching the people at scale. The
Sitharaman said in her speech that the govern- A provision of Rs 75,000 crore as a fifty-year inter- country got a new sense of purpose and hope.”
ment is focusing on welfare of the poor, women, est-free loan is proposed this year to support the She announced that the FDI inflow during
youth and farmers. milestone-linked reforms of Viksit Bharat by the 2014-23 was USD 596 billion marking a golden
“As our Prime Minister firmly believes, we need State Governments. era and this is twice the inflow during 2005-14. For
to focus on four major castes. They are, ‘garib’ She announced that for tech-savvy youth, this encouraging sustained foreign investment, the gov-
(poor), ‘mahilayen’ (women), ‘yuva’ (youth) and will be a golden era, as a corpus of Rs one lakh ernment is negotiating bilateral investment treaties
‘annadata’ (farmer). Their needs, their aspirations, crore will be established with fifty-year interest free with foreign partners in the spirit of ‘first develop
and their welfare are our highest priority. The loan. She said the corpus will provide long-term India’, the Finance Minister added.
country progresses, when they progress. All four financing or refinancing with long tenors and low In his reaction, Chidambaram said the Finance
require and receive government support in their or nil interest rates. This will also encourage the Minister id not acknowledge” the rampant unem-
quest to better their lives. Their empowerment and private sector to scale up research and innovation ployment” and did not utter a word on how the
well-being will drive the country forward,” she said. significantly in sunrise domains, she added. government intended to address the problem. “By
Opposition parties slammed the budget with The minister said that interim budget contains deliberate neglect over the last 10 years, the gov-
Congress leader P Chidambaram stating that the a number of announcements and strategies indicat- ernment has destroyed the demographic dividend
Finance Minister had not talked about unemploy- ing directions and development approach for mak- story and dashed the hopes of millions of youth
ment and that fundamental flaw in the NDA’s ap- ing India Viksit Bharat by 2047. and their families,” he said.

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