Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to create history when she presents her seventh straight budget on Tuesday for 2024-25, surpassing the record of former prime minister Morarji Desai.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s first budget of the third term in office is widely expected to reinforce post-pandemic fiscal consolidation efforts while pursuing the long-term objectives of Vikshit Bharat.
Setting the tone for the third term of the Modi government, its focus areas may be boosting consumption by giving tax benefits to the middle class. Other priority areas may include agriculture, capex and infra spending and manufacturing push.
With India emerging as the biggest sweet spot in global growth, the budget is expected to address three major trends: global offshoring, digitalization, and energy transition. In the past decade, the Modi government has poured thousands of crores of rupees into building infrastructure, cut taxes for big corporations and launched subsidy schemes to incentivise exports-focused manufacturing.
This helped stabilise macro economy and led to stock markets soaring. But job creation, income inequality and rural distress need to be addressed. Sitharaman, who will turn 65 next month, was in 2019 appointed as India’s first full-time woman finance minister when Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a decisive second term. Since then, she has presented six straight budgets, including an interim one in February this year.
