Union Budget 2024 Expectations, Budget Highlights

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will equal the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai when she presents her sixth straight budget on February 1.Sitharaman, the first full-time woman finance minister of the country, has presented five full budgets since July 2019 and will present an interim or vote-on-account budget next week.With the presentation of interim budget on February 1, Sitharaman will surpass the records of her predecessors like Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, and Yashwant Sinha, who had presented five budgets in a row.Desai, as finance minister, had presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959-1964. The interim budget 2024-25 to be presented by Sitharaman on February 1, will be a vote-on-account that will give the government authority to spend certain sums of money till a new government comes to office after the April-May general elections. The upcoming budget is anticipated to be a vote on account rather than a comprehensive budget, serving as a provisional declaration estimating the funds needed by the government before a new administration assumes office post-elections. In contrast to a complete budget that outlines the government’s plans for expenditure and revenue generation in the upcoming year, analysts predict that the forthcoming budget, set to be unveiled next month, may not bring forth substantial announcements.Radhika Rao, Executive Director and Senior Economist, DBS Group Research in a research report has stressed upon expectations around a few relief measures for the rural/ farm sector whilst the capex push persists.”While the vote-on-account will see the government seek permission from the parliament to cover crucial expenditures until the general elections, few measures might be proposed to support the rural/farming community, as the sector faces near-term challenges like poor weather conditions, the fallout of climate change, and inflationary pressures (food and fertilisers),” Rao said.

Budget 2024: What logistic sector wants

Soham Chokshi, CEO and Co-Founder of Shipsy, hope the govt to offer financial incentives for the deployment of EVs and for tracking emissions across various transportation modes. Allocating funds to expedite the country’s AI-adoption in supply chain and logistics will also drive significant productivity gains,” he said in a statement.

Budget 2024: ONDC platform may get further investment

According to Ketaki Karnik, partner at Xynteo, government may give further impetus to the ONDC platform in the form of additional investment “to accelerate e-commerce adoption amongst MSMEs (currently under 5% of MSMEs sell goods online)”. This may also to ease the cost of doing business for MSMEs, Ketaki said.