NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is poised to make history by presenting her sixth consecutive budget, matching the record set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, just ahead of the Parliamentary elections.
Interim Budget: Sitharaman’s pre-election budget, technically termed a vote on account, seeks Parliament’s approval for an advance grant to cover essential expenditures for the first four months of the upcoming fiscal year starting in April. A new government, post the April/May general elections, is slated to present the full budget, expectedly in July.
Here are the key highlights of the interim budget:
- The Union Cabinet, headed by PM Modi, on Thursday approved the pre-election budget 2024-25.
- Sitharaman first called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan ahead of the Budget presentation in Parliament on Thursday morning.
- Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday again took a digital tablet wrapped in a traditional ‘bahi-khata’ style pouch as she headed for Parliament to present the interim Budget 2024-25 in a paperless format just like the previous three years. She posed for the traditional ‘briefcase’ picture outside her office, along with her team of officials, before heading to meet the President.
