~ By Ritesh
The Annual Financial Statement of the Union Budget of India is soon going to be released on Thursday, February 1, 2024. The Budget details the government’s plan for the upcoming financial year. It consists of the revenue generated in the previous fiscal and the government’s expenditure strategy for the successive fiscal.
For FY24, last year, the finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman announced major changes in terms of increasing the personal income tax slab to Rs 3 lakh and allocating around Rs 10 lakh crore for investments in infrastructure development programmes.
While focussing on the Amrit Kaal of India’s Independent journey, the government focussed on increasing the job creation for the youth and utilising the youth power for the development of the country’s economy.
Now that the Union Budget 2024-2025 is around the corner, ETBFSI asked the Gen Y of the country about their anticipation from the upcoming budget.
Talking about the expectations from the Budget 2024, Akshita Singh (30), a working professional in corporate says, “I’m more willing to hear about the updates and progress made in the last budget, achievements or success report of the schemes launched last year.”
The government had stressed on the skill development of the youth through Kaushal Vikas Yojna 4.0, job-training and industry emphasis oriented programmes in the last year’s budget.
Job Creation and Tax Relief
Taking the fact into consideration that this will be an Interim Budget and will be the last one prior to the General Elections, Akshita guesses that the budget will include job opportunities. “The upcoming budget might include job opportunities for the youth, especially in the government sector,” adding that “it should also bring some tax relief in the form of deductions”.
Emphasising the need for relief in personal income tax, Shipra Raj (35), an independent researcher, says, “the budget must revise the existing tax slabs for the working professionals. I am expecting a new tax slab in the budget which considers the high inflation and living expenses in India particularly in metropolitan cities. Higher exemption limit is what can benefit the young professionals.”
Better Infrastructure Spending
Raj expanded on the need for better and more spending on infrastructure development in the growing railways and aviation sector.
Asking for bigger shares of investment in the transport sector, she added, “the government must consider working on the railways’ infrastructure. The Indian railways still lack basic facilities. There needs to be a larger share for both railways and civil aviation in the budget to improve the passenger amenities like clean washrooms and good food.”
“The infrastructure as it stands today does not facilitate leisure travel or for that matter routine travel because nobody wants any kind of hassle while they are travelling,” she said, echoing about the mismanagement in the travel sector.
Crypto Regulation
Discussing about the volatility in the market, especially with regard to lack of regulation of cryptocurrency, Namit Vikram Singh (32), Assistant Professor at University of Delhi, said, “there needs to be some sort of regularisation of the digital currency or cryptocurrency to prevent volatility in the market. The investment landscape, through digital economies, needs to be streamlined so that the youth can diversify their investments and be in control of their money along with the necessary safety nets.”
Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship
“The government needs to strategise dynamic and flexible tax measures for the digital media economy so that there can be some kind of standardisation and transparency in terms of revenue generated and also provide a degree of accountability,” he said, highlighting the evolving digital atmosphere and its significance for the economy.
Speaking on the role of government in aiding young entrepreneurs, he said, “the government can further push for greater public private partnerships so that it can help the youngsters in exploring a variety of venues through a mixed approach to help boost the overall economy in India.”
Along the same lines, Akshita says, “I am looking forward to knowing what all will be launched for entrepreneurs this year. The previous year’s budget laid emphasis on tax concessions, and custom duty exemptions. It will be interesting to analyse how far the union government could guess the need of the hour for the millennials.”
“For the overall state of balance of the economy, these things are essential and required for the coming generation of young population which will be integrating the digital technologies way more than extensively for employment and job creation activities,” said Namit while expecting sustainable and long-term reforms through the upcoming budget.
Since, the forthcoming budget will be an interim budget, the last one before the Lok Sabha elections, there is less probability of major reforms to be announced by the finance minister. However, in order to facilitate the smooth transition or the extension of the tenure of the current government, it is important to lay down the basic framework along with some relaxation in the tax slabs, so that the general public and the driving human force of the economy – the youth, Gen Z and Gen Y can be benefitted from the Union Budget 2024.
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