Union Budget 2024 is currently being announced by Nirmala Sitaraman, Union Minister of Finance, Government of India in the Lok Sabha. In her seventh consecutive budget announcement, Sitharaman stated that the Union Budget 2024 will focus on four pillars namely: Skilling, Employment, MSMEs and Middle Class.
Also read: Union Budget 2024 Unveils Major Boost for Jobs and Skilling
“Turning attention to the full year and beyond, in this budget, we particularly focus on employment, skilling, MSMEs, and the middle class. I am happy to announce the Prime Minister’s package of 5 schemes and initiatives to facilitate employment, skilling and other opportunities for 4.1 crore youth over a 5-year period with a central outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore,” said the minister.
Also read: Announcements Made for Personal Income Tax in Union Budget 2024
She further added: “The people have given our government a unique opportunity to guide the country towards strong development and all-round prosperity. In the interim budget, we promise to present a detailed roadmap for our pursuit of Viksit Bharat, aligned with the strategies outlined in the interim budget.”
The interim Budget highlighted the government’s focus in 4 key areas: Poor, Women, Youth and Farmer.
Priorities for Union Budget 2024
Sitharaman also stated that the Union Budget 2024 will comprise announcements for the following nine listed priorities:
- Productivity and resilience in agriculture
- Employment and skilling
- Inclusive human resource development and social justice
- Manufacturing and services
- Urban development
- Energy security
- Infrastructure
- Innovation, research, and development
- Next-generation reforms
She stated that subsequent budgets will build on these nine priorities and the Indian Government would later add more priorities and actions. She also confirmed that a more detailed formulation will be carried out as part of the economic policy framework. “This budget outlines specific actions to be initiated this year towards fulfilling these priorities, with the potential for transformative changes. The budget also covers some previously made announcements, with the intent to strengthen them and accelerate their implementation to expedite our journey towards the goal of Viksit Bharat,” said Sitharaman.
Announcements for MSMEs and Technology
Nirmala Sitharaman said: “Public Sector Banks will build their own in-house capability to asses MSMEs for credit instead of relying on external assessment. They will also take a lead in developing or getting developed a new credit assessment model based on the scoring of digital footprints of the MSMEs in the economy. The limit of Mudra Loans will be enhanced to ₹20 lakh from the current ₹10 lakh, for those entrepreneurs who have availed and successfully repaid previous loans under the Tarun category.”
The following are some of the main announcements:
- MUDRA loan limit increased to Rs 20 lakh from Rs 10 lakh.
- Support for 50 multi-product food irradiation units in the MSME sector.
- E-commerce export hubs to be established in PPP mode.
- Rs 1000 crore VC fund will be set up for Spactech and space economy.
- New Industrial Parks to be developed in or around 100 cities. 12 industrial parks have been approved under the National Industrial Corridor Development Program.
- Technology to speed up digitalization of economy.
- Jan Vishwas Bill 2.0 to improve Ease of Doing Business.
- States to be incentivized to implement Business Reforms Action Plans and digitalization.
- Angel tax abolished.
