Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday led the team of Secretaries and Chief Economic Advisor to explain various provisions made in the Union Budget. Here are some excerpts from the budget explanation by Team Finmin.

An overall theme

The theme of Budget 2024 is EMPLOYMENT, encompassing various aspects crucial to the nation’s development. “Employment captures everything to do with this Budget,” she stated. Here in the acronym, EMPLOYMENT. E - Employment & Education, M – MSMEs, P – Productivity, L – Land, O – Opportunity, Y – Youth, M - Middle Class, E - Energy Security, N - New Generation Reforms and T – Technology.

End date for Old Tax Regime?

“The government’s intention is to make the income tax regime simpler. Cannot say whether there will be a sunset clause on the old income tax regime. Decision after a review,” she said.

Widening the tax net and revenue mobilisation

“It is not just because we have mentioned it in this budget but the attempt to widen the tax net is something which we have been repeatedly saying, that India’s tax net will have to be widened - on the direct and indirect taxation. Second, there are also now PSU dividends which are improving because the valuations have gone up really high and their performance has also now substantially increased. So, revenue mobilisation is not just tax-based, you have non-tax revenue mobilisations which are also coming up. For three years now, we have been talking about asset monetisation, which is not the selling of assets but the optimum utilisation of those assets which are lying in the form of unutilised stadiums or land which is available with PSUs which can be utilised for better purposes,” she said.

12.5 per cent LTCG

“We wanted to simplify the approach to taxation which is also for the capital gains. Second, if anything, the average taxation has actually come down when we say it is 12.5 per cent. We have worked out for each of the different asset classes. The point is that we brought it down from below the average to 12.5 per cent which encourages investment in the markets.”  She said.

₹15,000 cr allocation to AP

“I’ve already mentioned it in the Budget speech that it is coming through the multi-lateral development assistance which we borrow from multi-lateral banks whether it is the World Bank or ADB or AIB. And, I had also ended that paragraph by saying further assistance will also be extended,” Sitharaman said.

What about other states?

Responding to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s allegation that the state was left out of the Budget, Sitharaman explained that if a state’s name is not mentioned in the budget, it doesn’t mean they don’t get anything. “As per schemes and ongoing projects, every state will get what they have proposed for. No state will get missed out. Let’s dispel this notion. The intention is not to leave out any state,” she said, adding that Bengal has opted out of certain schemes meant for all states.

Tracking the Railways

She pointed to the outlay in the interim budget presented earlier this year. “There is a sustainable budget kept for Railways. ₹2.52 lakh crore is the budget for Railways,” stated Sitharaman. According to Finance Secretary T V Somnathan, the rail budget stands at a record high of ₹2.56 lakh crore. In the Interim Budget for FY25, ₹2,52,200 crore was allocated as gross budgetary support for the Railways, along with an additional ₹10,000 crore from extra-budgetary resources.