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Budget initiatives to boost growth and jobs: FM – Business News
The Union Budget 2024-25 has introduced several initiatives to revive the country’s economy, including reduction in customs duty, development of industrial parks and allocation of more resources for capital expenditure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.
Responding to the discussion on the Budget, the minister refuted an allegation by opposition parties that the central government has not been fair to the states tax returns and by giving them consent to borrow from Marketplace.
“I would like to underline our unwavering commitment to cooperative federalism. The total resources proposed to be transferred to states in 2024-25 is estimated at Rs 22.91 trillion, an increase of Rs 2.49 trillion over the previous financial year 2023-24,” Sitharaman said.
The Finance Minister said taxes and surcharges are traditionally not part of the divisible pool of central taxes.
She also said the Centre is following the recommendation of the 15th Finance Commission to issue borrowing consent to states, uniformly for all states for the entire fiscal year.
Net debt limits of 3% of overall GDP were set for the fiscal year.
“Loan consent issued to all states adopting uniform parameters as per guidelines. All of them (states) are treated equally,” Sitharaman said.
In addition, each state is allowed to borrow 0.5% of state GDP, subject to fulfilling conditionalities of power sector reforms, she added.
Speaking about the Budget, she said that capital expenditure in the last 10 years of the Narendra Modi The government stood at Rs 43.82 trillion, compared to Rs 13.19 trillion during the previous UPA government a decade ago.
The minister said that the allocations provided for in the Budget have increased for sectors such as agriculture, education and health.
Agricultural reforms, including the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana and the distribution of soil health cards, were highlighted as important steps towards economic growth.
The Budget is an exercise to do India an attractive destination for manufacturing companies and PLI schemes remain attractive for the manufacturing sector, she said.
She also said the government is sticking to the fiscal deficit trajectory. It will bring the deficit down to below 4.5 per cent by 2025-26 from the target of 4.9 per cent for the current fiscal.