Union budget 2024-25 : When will it be presented, what to expect and more

With the 2024 general elections handing the BJP and its allies a fractured, albeit ruling majority in the country for the third consecutive time, India is now gearing up for the 2024–25 Union budget, which will be presented on July 22 between 11 am and 1 pm. The economic survey is traditionally presented the day before. However, as per reports, the economic survey is likely to be released on July 3rd this year. The famous halwa ceremony will take place 10 days before the budget is tabled.

Pre-budget consultations will begin on June 17th. FM Nirmala Sitharaman will become the first finance minister to have presented seven straight budgets, a record previously held by Morarji Desai, who had six consecutive budget presentations to his name. To date, Sitharaman has tabled five full and one interim budget.

The first parliamentary session under Modi 3.0 will kick off on June 24, and the 264th session of the parliament will take place between the 27th of June and the 3rd of August. The year is set to see two budgets: one full-fledged budget in July and an interim budget presented on February 1, 2024.
What can we expect from this budget?
Presenting an interim budget is customary during election years in India since it facilitates the transfer of work and finances between the outgoing and incoming governments.

With the upcoming budget, PM Modi’s government will largely focus on tackling unemployment, issues in the agriculture sector, and maintaining the flow of capital expenditure in the economy. The simplification of the GST regime and rolling out the 3rd edition of the FAME scheme (Faster Adoption & Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) will also rank highly on the budget agenda. In that stead, a meeting of the GST council is also scheduled to take place on June 22nd.

Additionally, experts are also anticipating the expansion of the PLI (production-linked incentives) schemes in this budget to include other sectors as well.
Lesser-known budget milestones
Till 2019, the union budget was carried in a briefcase, a practice initiated by India’s first FM, Sir RK Shanmukham Chetty. In 2019, the budget was presented as a traditional bahi-khata for the first time. It went paperless in 2021 after the FM introduced the budget via a tablet. Apart from having presented most budgets, Sitharaman also holds the record for having delivered the longest budget speech while presenting the Union budget for 2020–21. She spoke for two hours and 42 minutes. On the other hand, India’s shortest-ever budget speech was given in 1977 by Hirubhai Patel.