UNION BUDGET @2024

Union Budget 2024 | Fiscal deficit pegged at 5.1% in FY25 from 5.8%: FM

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the Indian economy has witnessed a profound positive transformation in the last 10 years. The finance minister expressed confidence that the revenue receipts will be higher than the budget estimates in the upcoming fiscal.

The fiscal deficit for 2024-25 is estimated at 5.1 per cent of GDP against 5.8 per cent in the current financial year, she said. Presenting the interim Budget 2024-25, Sitharaman said tax receipts for 2024-25 are projected at Rs 26.02 lakh crore. She informed that the fiscal deficit in FY24 is expected at 5.8 per cent of GDP, down from 5.9 per cent estimated earlier.

The Union government's fiscal deficit touched Rs 9.82 lakh crore or 55 per cent of the annual Budget target at December-end 2023. In the corresponding period last year, the deficit was 59.8 per cent of the budget estimates for 2022-23.

Sitharaman also said 50-year interest-free loans of Rs 75,000 crore to be extended to states to realise the dream of a developed India, and added that every challenge of pre-2014 was overcome through our economic management.

Revised estimates
The revised estimate of the total receipts for 2023-24 other than borrowings is Rs 27.56 lakh crore, of which the tax receipts are Rs 23.24 lakh crore. The total expenditure is Rs 44.90 lakh crore.

Revenue receipts at Rs 30.03 lakh crore are expected to be higher than the Budget Estimate, reflecting strong growth momentum and formalization in the economy. The revised estimate of the fiscal deficit is 5.8 per cent of GDP for 2023-24.

Budget estimates for 2024-25
Total receipts other than borrowings and the total expenditure are estimated at Rs 30.80 crore and Rs 47.66 lakh crore respectively in 2024-25. Tax receipts are estimated at Rs 26.02 lakh crore.

Scheme of fifty-year interest-free loan for capital expenditure to states to be continued this year with a total outlay of Rs.1.3 lakh crore. The fiscal deficit in 2024-25 is estimated to be 5.1 per cent of GDP. Gross and net market borrowings through dated securities during 2024-25 are estimated at Rs14.13 and Rs11.75 lakh crore respectively.

After contracting by 5.8 per cent in 2020-21, the economy recorded a growth of 9.1 per cent in 2021-22. The finance ministry in its latest monthly economic review said the Indian economy will become third largest in the world in the next three years with a GDP of $5 trillion from the current $3.7 trillion.  It also said India can aspire to become a $7 trillion economy in the next six to seven years (by 2030). 

In December, the Reserve Bank of India raised the GDP growth projection for the current fiscal to 7 per cent from 6.5 per cent earlier on buoyant domestic demand and higher capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector.

The Washington-headquartered International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that economic growth in India to remain strong at 6.5 per cent in 2023-24 and 2024-25, an upgrade of 0.2 percentage points for both years from earlier forecast.

The World Bank has projected a growth rate for India at 6.4 per cent for the current financial year, and a marginally higher expansion in the GDP at 6.5 per cent for 2024-25.

Another leading multilateral agency ADB has raised the growth outlook for India to 6.7 per cent for 2023-24 from 6.3 per cent, following faster-than-expected expansion in July-September, driven by double-digit growth in industry.