Before the general budget for the financial year 2023-24, on Monday, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Economic Survey Report in the Lok Sabha, in which an account of the performance of the sectors related to the economy during the last financial year will be presented. After this, the next day (Tuesday) she will present the general budget for the financial year 2024-25. This time people have high expectations from the budget. It is believed that due to the elections to be held in five states, there will be an attempt to give relief to the youth, middle class, farmers and employed people in the budget. At the same time, this is the first budget of the NDA’s joint government, in view of which the government will avoid putting a burden on the people or any particular sector.
What is economic survey
Economic Survey is a document which is presented a day before the budget. It shows how the country’s economy performed in the last financial year. The government’s policies and development programs are also explained in detail. The survey also displays information and analysis of various sectors of the economy along with employment, country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures, inflation and budget deficit figures.
Three parts of the economic survey are important
1- Information is given about the possibilities of growth of the economy along with the challenges and policies related to increasing the growth rate.
2- The performance of the work done in the past year in different sectors related to the economy is kept.
3- There is information on inflation, employment, import-export and production in different sectors of the country in the last one year.
These will be kept under scrutiny in the budget
1. Tax relief to the middle class: The government can decide to change the income tax rates and increase the investment limit. Till now, under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, there is a provision of exemption on investment up to one and a half lakh rupees, which can be increased from two to two and a half lakhs. Under the new and old system of filing income tax returns, changes can also be made in the income tax slabs.
2. Youth and employment: In view of the upcoming assembly elections, the government’s focus will also be on increasing employment. For this, the government can make new announcements regarding employment generating sectors. It can also take a decision to promote skill development and increase the sports budget.
3. Better and affordable housing facilities: Under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, the government has set a target of building five crore houses across the country. Out of these, the first cabinet of Modi 3.0 government has approved the construction of three crore houses, for which the government will allocate money from the budget. Along with this, a scheme to provide loans at cheap rates to the middle class for building houses may be announced.
4. Infrastructure : The government had set a target of gross expenditure of more than 11.1 lakh crore rupees in the interim budget. While the government will allocate budget to schemes running in infrastructure sectors including road, metro, rail and airport ports in the country, it can also announce new projects related to these sectors.
5. Agriculture-Farmers : If the budget is seen in terms of agriculture, the most expected thing is that the amount of Kisan Samman Nidhi will be increased which can be increased from six to 10-12 thousand rupees annually. Along with this, it is possible to announce some new schemes for the agriculture sector, in which a decision to increase subsidy on agricultural products and reduce GST is also possible.
