Winning Bizness Desk
Mumbai. The central government may present the full budget for the financial year 2024-25 in mid-July and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will start her pre-consultation budget meeting with several ministries and stakeholders by June 17. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju shared a post on the social media platform X and said that the first session of the 18th Lok Sabha will run from June 24 to July 3. Newly elected members will take oath in this session. Apart from this, this session will include the election of the Speaker, the President's address and subsequent discussions. This schedule shows that the first session will not be adjourned indefinitely. However, a break will be taken before the second part begins. Sources said that the second part will begin with the presentation of the Economic Survey for the financial year 2023-24. After that the full budget for FY 25 will be presented.
FM presented the interim budget on Feb 1
On February 1, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the interim budget. In which the 'fiscal consolidation path' of less than 4.5% till 2026 and 5.1% in FY 2025 was maintained. However, the government may consider revising this target during its pre-consultation meeting next week. Although the central government has not given any specific information about the upcoming budget, it is expected to include details about the use of the RBI dividend of ₹ 2.11 trillion. The government will continue its reform agenda and may look for opportunities for additional expenditure.
Know about the complete process of the budget
First of all, the Finance Ministry issues a circular and asks all ministries, states, union territories, autonomous institutions to prepare estimates for the new year. They also have to give details of the expenditure and income of the previous year. After receiving the estimate, the top officials of the central government examine it and the data is sent to the Finance Ministry with recommendations. Then after considering all the recommendations, the Finance Ministry allocates revenue to the departments for their expenditure. The Department of Revenue and Economic Affairs contacts representatives of farmers and small businessmen and foreign institutional investors to understand the situation in depth.
Halwa ceremony a customary observation
A few days before the budget is presented, there is a Halwa Ceremony. Halwa prepared in a big pan is distributed among the staff of the Finance Ministry. With this, the printing process of the budget begins. The officers and support staff involved in the process remain in the ministry till the budget is presented. The budget of this financial year was not printed and its soft copy was given to the members of Parliament. The Finance Minister presents the general budget in the Lok Sabha. Till 2016, it used to be presented on the last day of February. From 2017, it started being presented on 1 February every year. This year, for the first time, all the budget documents were made available on Union Budget mobile.