Check Date, Time and Why FM Nirmala Sitharaman Is Presenting Interim Budget?

Interim Budget 2024: The Central Government is all set with the Interim Budget for 2024-2025. It is commonly a financial plan to help the government run until a new government comes into power. The short-term plan traditionally began the ‘halwa’ ceremony on January 24, 2024. This article will help you know and understand the final annual financial statement of the Narendra Modi government’s second term.

What is Interim Budget?

An interim budget is a temporary financial plan for the government. It replaces the full budget if Parliament is short on time or general elections are approaching. This budget helps the government to keep essential services running and covers expenditures for the first few months of the fiscal year.

List of Finance Ministers of India (1947 to 2024)

Interim Budget 2024: Date, Time

As per the latest official announcement, the Interim Budget for the financial year 2024-2025 has been scheduled to take place on February 1, 2024, at 11 am. It will be an important event in India’s economic calendar as it outlines the government’s revenue and expenditure plans for the upcoming financial year.

Important Dates To Remember

What is the difference between Interim Budget and Union Budget?

The outgoing government usually presents an interim budget, focusing on essential expenditures and policy continuity. It typically doesn’t introduce major policy changes or new schemes, as it is considered a caretaker budget.

On the other hand, a union budget is a comprehensive financial plan presented annually, outlining the government’s revenue, expenditure, and policy initiatives for the upcoming fiscal year.

Important Days in February 2024: List of National and International Days

Why Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting an Interim Budget?

As this is the year of Lok Sabha elections, FM Sitharaman’s interim budget is not to introduce policy change but to plan the span to avoid any sort of financial difficulties. At an industry event in December, FM Sitharaman confirmed this and said there will not be any “spectacular announcement” in the interim budget. She said it would just be a vote-on-account before the general elections.

Once approved by Parliament, it will authorise the government to withdraw money from the Consolidated Fund of India on a pro-rata basis to meet expenditure for the April-July period.

Interesting Facts About Budget Sessions 

• Nirmala Sitharaman has been serving as the third finance minister in the Modi administration, since 2014.
• Arun Kumar Jaitley rescheduled the budget presentation for the first day of the month from the final working day of February. 
• Following Indira Gandhi, who presented the budget for the 1970–71 fiscal year, Nirmala Sitharaman is the second female minister to present the budget.
• A “bahi-khata” with the National Emblem embroidered on it was chosen by Finance Minister Sitharaman to carry the speech and other documents instead of the traditional budget briefcase. 
• This Interim Budget of 2024 will be Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s sixth budget and the 12th budget of the Modi administration.
• She will be the second finance minister to present her sixth straight budget after former PM Morarji Desai.
• Breaking the records set by her predecessors, Yashwant Sinha, Arun Jaitley, Manmohan Singh, and P Chidambaram, who presented five budgets in a row, is Sitharaman, the first full-time female finance minister. 

The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, had reportedly listed the youth, women, farmers, and the destitute as target groups for upliftment. Finance Minister Sitharaman added that the administration seeks to empower these groups without considering caste, community, or religion. “Yuva, women—those who provide us with food security, exemplary farmers, and then the unfortunate impoverished—need more support to rise to the occasion.” Many reports will be given by the government, such as the Union Budget, the most important financial statement of the year, and the Economic Survey, which examines the nation’s economic performance in the preceding year. 

Important Days and Dates 2024: National and International Days