Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to present the Union Budget 2023-24 on 1 February. This is his fifth and the last full budget of the government before the 2024 general elections.
This time people have many expectations before the budget. In such a situation, here we are going to talk about some budget expectations, which can be announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in this budget and people can also get relief from them.
Tax related announcements
Income tax related announcements are one of the keenly watched things in the budget as it affects the people and the exchequer of the government at large. It is expected that the government can provide relief to individual taxpayers by increasing the tax exemption or exemption limit. In the Union Budget 2023-24, there is also a demand to increase the limit of deduction under Section 80C from Rs 1.5 lakh at present.
Fiscal Deficit
Fiscal deficit is one of the important metrics to follow among the markets and policy makers. This reflects the health of the government’s finances and its dependence on borrowing. As per the new data available, India’s fiscal deficit during April-November 2022 stood at Rs 9.78 lakh crore or 58.9 per cent of the target for the entire fiscal year. In the same period last year, the deficit stood at 46.2 per cent of the target for the entire FY22. Fiscal deficit is the difference between the expenditure and revenue of the government.
Disinvestment target The budgeted disinvestment target for the current financial year 2022-23 is Rs 65,000 crore. Of this, the government has so far raised about Rs 31,000 crore by selling its equity in central public sector enterprises. In the last four years, the government has been continuously missing the budgetary target.
In the Union Budget 2021-22, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier set a disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore, which was later revised to Rs 78,000 crore. However, the mop-up in 2021-22 was only Rs 13,531 crore. India’s mega IPO LIC IPO was seen in the current financial year. Now, privatization of two state-owned banks and a general insurance company is pending.
Capital expenditure
In the last budget 2022, capital expenditure was encouraged to support the economy affected by the epidemic. At the same time, some reports say that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman may unveil a big spending plan for private investment for the financial year 2023-24. The government is expected to continue with its plan to increase capital expenditure in the upcoming budget 2023-24 with a special focus on states’ expenditure on capital assets.
