Budget 2024: FM Sitharaman to table budget soon; here's a look at allocations in interim budget

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2024-25 in the Parliament today at 11 am. This will be Sitharaman's seventh budget and the first full budget of NDA 3.0 after the Lok Sabha Election results came out. With the BJP winning on 240 seats and the NDA on 293, this Budget could focus more on increasing rural consumption, as per analysts.

This Budget could also focus on revising taxation rules, making it easier for taxpayers to comply. Sitharaman could also announce an increase in the budgetary allocations towards schemes like PM Awas Yojana, Jal Jeevan Mission, MGNREGS, and the PM KISAN initiative.

Union Budget 2024 expectations

• Railways: Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to announce an increase in allocation towards railways by 12-15 per cent in her speech today, according to Incred Equities. Incred Equities believes that in order to ramp up rail safety and speed, KAVACH safety-related capex is much needed. It also eyes ramping up of Vande Bharat trains by 50-60 trains, large investments in track construction, rolling stock, and railway safety. 
• Infrastructure: The Budget 2024 is likely to increase allocations for public investment in infrastructure with a focus on renewable energy, city gas distribution and water. The government is also likely to continue spending on roads and railways, and special focus on housing, as per brokerage Anand Rathi. 
• Taxation: The government is likely to continue focusing on the new tax regime and structural changes to the tax system. Some other focal points with regards to taxation could be ensuring faster processing of refunds, robust collection machinery and speedy disposal of appeals and grievance redressals. 
• Agriculture: Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to announce a fertiliser subsidy provision of Rs 1.64 lakh crore for FY25. Budgetary allocations are also likely to be made for accelerating tech adoption, boosting productivity and improving storage infrastructure, as per JM Financial. 
• Health insurance deduction: Besides this, the government is expected to focus on extending the health insurance deduction. Currently, section 80D allows deduction for health insurance premium under the old tax regime.
• Housing sector: More expenditure is likely on PM Awas Yojana and income tax deduction for homebuyers is also on the cards. In her interim budget speech, Sitharaman also announced that a new scheme will be launched with a focus on providing affordable housing for the middle class. 

Interim Budget allocations

The Union Budget 2024-25 is being tabled almost 5 months after the interim budget. Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the interim budget 2024 in Parliament in February this year, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Here's a look at the top allocations in interim Budget 2024:

• Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a substantial hike of 11 per cent in capital expenditure outlay for infrastructure development and employment generation to Rs 11.11 lakh crore in 2024-25.
• The government had increased the defence budget to Rs 6.21 lakh crore for 2024-25 from last year's allocation of Rs 5.94 lakh crore. Announcements regarding a scheme for "deep-tech" technologies in the military domain were also made. 
• In the Railways sector, the Finance Minister announced three major economic railway corridor programmes under the PM Gati Shakti initiative will be implemented to ramp up logistics networks and cut costs. 
• Nirmala Sitharaman also proposed converting 40,000 normal rail bogies to Vande Bharat standards. 
• The interim budget allocated Rs 86,000 crore for MGNREGS in 2024-25. The Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, on the other hand, was allocated Rs 80,761 crore in 2024-25. 
• The Finance Minister allocated Rs 70,163 crore towards the Jal Jeevan Mission and Rs 60,000 crore towards the PM KISAN scheme.