New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the FICCI 95th Annual Convention and AGM, in New Delhi on Friday, December 16, 2022. (PTI Photo/Atul Yadav) (PTI12_16_2022_000064B) | Photo credit: –
On December 16, Finance Minister Nirmala Sithataman indicated that her upcoming budget will continue to drive growth through government spending, as she said it will “follow the spirit” of previous budgets.
Ms Sitharaman, who was due to present her fifth consecutive budget on February 1 for the fiscal year beginning in April, had unveiled a massive public spending program to support the economy emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the budget, the finance minister had increased capital expenditure by 35.4% for the financial year 2022-23 to ₹7.5 lakh crore to boost demand, while capital expenditure last year s amounted to ₹5.5 lakh crore.
“It’s very inspiring and motivating for me, especially at a time when we are preparing the next budget for the country, a budget that will follow the spirit of previous budgets. We will set the model, which was set earlier but follow do it and go further for India’s next 25 years…” she said at an event here.
GDP growth has slowed in recent months due to global headwinds and rising interest rates globally to control spiraling inflation. This prompted some to seek further government impetus to revive the growth rate.
The 2023-2024 budget will be presented in the context of many institutions including the Reserve Bank, reducing India’s growth forecast to around 6.8% for the current financial year.
The RBI has projected real GDP growth for 2022-23 at 6.8%, with the third quarter at 4.4% and the fourth at 4.2%.
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth is projected at 7.1% for the April-June 2023-24 period and 5.9% for the following quarter.
Next year’s budget will need to address the critical issues of high levels of inflation, stimulating demand, creating jobs and putting the economy on a sustained growth path of more than 8 %.
This will be the Modi 2.0 government and Ms Sitharaman’s fifth budget, and the last full budget before the general elections scheduled for April-May 2024.
