Since the presentation of Budget 2024, the opposition has been making various allegations. The opposition is becoming more aggressive over the neglect of many states. On this, the Finance Minister gave the government’s reply in both houses of Parliament.
New Delhi. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman once again gave a befitting reply to the attacks of the opposition. Since the presentation of Budget 2024, the opposition has been attacking on the issue that all the states have not been taken care of in the budget. After answering this in the Lok Sabha a day earlier, the Finance Minister also put forth her point in the Rajya Sabha today on Wednesday. She said that not naming any state in the budget speech does not mean that those states have not received money.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in the House that a better balance has been established between economic growth, employment, capital investment and fiscal strength in the budget. She also accused the opposition of spreading misinformation. Said that the absence of a state’s name in the budget speech does not mean that they have not received any money. Responding to the discussion on Budget 2024-25 in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman said that funds have been allocated for every state in the budget.
States received around Rs 23 lakh crore
Sitharaman said, ‘A better balance has been established between economic growth, employment, capital investment and fiscal strength in the budget. This time the emphasis is on cooperative federalism in the budget. In the financial year 2024-25, Rs 22.91 lakh crore was given to the states, which is Rs 2.49 lakh crore more than last year. Therefore, if the name of a state is not mentioned in the budget speech, it does not mean that there is no allocation for it in the budget.
History reminded the opposition
The Finance Minister said, if we look at the past budgets, even the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) government did not mention the names of all the states in its budget speech. In the 2004-05 budget, 17 states were not named. Whereas in the full budget of 2009-10, 28 states were not named. In other budgets too, many states were not mentioned, so did those states not get money? In the last 10 years, the capital expenditure of the Narendra Modi-led government was Rs 43.82 lakh crore, which was Rs 13.19 lakh crore during the UPA rule a decade ago.
target to reduce fiscal deficit
The Finance Minister also said that the government is moving towards achieving the fiscal deficit target. The target is to bring it down to 4.9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the current financial year. By the next financial year 2025-26, we want to bring it below 4.5 percent. The fiscal deficit was 5.6 percent in the financial year 2023-24. Sitharaman said that Rs 1.52 lakh crore has been allocated in the budget for agriculture and allied activities, which is Rs 8,000 crore more than the previous financial year.
Tags: Budget session, Business news, FM Nirmala Sitharaman
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 31, 2024, 17:29 IST