On Monday, before the general budget for the financial year 2023-24, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Economic Survey Report in the Lok Sabha, in which the account of the performance of sectors related to the economy during the last financial year will be presented. After this, the next day (Tuesday) 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, the budget will try to provide relief to the youth, middle class, farmers and employed people. At the same time, this is the first budget of the joint government of NDA, in view of which the government will avoid putting burden on the people or any particular area.
What is economic survey?
The Economic Survey is the document which is presented a day before the Budget. In this, how the country’s economy performed in the last financial year. Government policies and development programs are also explained in detail. The survey also displays information and analysis on various sectors of the economy, including employment, gross domestic product (GDP) data, inflation and budget deficit.
Three important parts of economic survey
1- Information is given about the possibilities of development of the economy along with challenges and policies related to increasing the growth rate.
2- The performance of the work done in the last year in different sectors related to the economy is kept.
3- There is information about inflation, employment, import-export and production in different areas of the country in the last one year.
Eyes will be on these in the budget
1. Tax relief for middle class: The government may decide to change income tax rates and increase investment limits. Till now, there is a provision of exemption on investment up to Rs 1.5 lakh under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, which can be increased to Rs 2.5 lakh. Income tax slabs can also be changed under the new and old system of filing income tax returns.
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 may also decide 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. Of these, in the first cabinet of the Modi 3.0 government itself, approval has been given to build three crore pucca houses, for which the government will allocate money from the budget. Along with this, a scheme may be announced to provide loans at affordable rates to the middle class to build houses.
4. Infrastructure: The government had set a target of gross expenditure of more than Rs 11.1 lakh crore in the interim budget. In the country, the budget will be allocated to the schemes run in infrastructure areas including road, metro, rail and airport, port, and it can also announce new projects related to these areas.
5. Farming-Farmers: If we look at the budget from the farming perspective, the biggest hope is to increase the amount of Kisan Samman Nidhi, which can be increased from six to Rs 10-12 thousand annually. Along with this, it is also possible to announce some new schemes for the agricultural sector, in which the decision to increase subsidy on agricultural products and reduce GST is also possible.
