New Delhi, July 31 (FN Agency) Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said that Budget 2024-25 would give impetus to local manufacturing, boost employment and increase India’s share in global growth. Replying to the discussion on the Budget in Rajya Sabha, the Minister slammed the economic policies of the previous UPA government, dismissed the allegation of Budget ignoring Opposition-ruled states and highlighted the measures taken by the Modi government.
Sitharaman underlined the government’s focus on quality expenditure to build assets and take India into the league of developed nations by 2047. “The total expenditure in Union government’s Budget statement 2024-25 is Rs 48.21 lakh crores. The total expenditure in the regular Budget 2024-25 is Rs 54,744 crores more than that of the Interim Budget which was presented on 1st February this year,” the Minister said. She highlighted that capital expenditure in the Budget 2024-25 is pegged at Rs 11 lakh crores, one of the biggest allocations made so far.
“This shows 17% increase over the provisional actuals of FY 2023-24,” Sitharaman added. The Finance Minister stated that the government had maintained fiscal discipline and is well on track to bring the fiscal deficit down to 4.5% of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2025-26. The Minister noted that the Union Budget 2024-25 balances growth, employment, welfare spending, capital investments, and fiscal consolidation. Responding to claims by some of the Opposition members that the Centre was violating the principles of co-operative federalism, she said that the government was providing unflinching support to co-operative federalism. “The total resources proposed to be transferred to the states this year (2024-25) is estimated to be Rs 22.91 lakh crores. This actually entails an increase of about Rs 2.49 lakh crores over 2023-24,” Sitharaman said. The Minister also rubbished the charge of Centre putting restrictions over borrowing by states saying that the argument was baseless.
She also clarified on tax devolution share of states and said that the same is based on Finance Commission recommendations. “It is wrong to calculate devolution based on gross tax receipts and then claim that the centre is devolving less than what is suggested by the Finance Commission to the states because the mandated amount, which is 41%, is based on net proceeds and not the gross tax receipts,” the Minister said in the Upper House. She vehemently defended the Agnipath scheme and countered the Opposition over their demand to roll it back. “Agniveer is a very reformative step to enhance the capabilities and battle-readiness of our Armed Forces. It ensures actually that we have fit soldiers who are on the frontline,” she said.
Sitharaman further said, “One of the expected outcomes of the (Agniveer) scheme is that Armed Forces will have much younger force by recruiting those in the age group of 17.5 years to 21 years, and retaining only 25%, thus reducing the average age of the Indian soldiers.” On the issue of inflation, Sitharaman took on the Opposition saying that the retail inflation in the country during the UPA era used to be higher than the global average. “We saw double-digit high inflation during UPA because of the policies which were reckless and inappropriate on one hand and inept measures to control inflation on the other,” she said. The Minister noted that during the last 10 years of the Modi government, India’s average inflation was only 5.1%, lower than 5.8% average among the emerging economies.