Union Budget 2024-25: Key Highlights and Strategic Priorities

Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has unveiled the Union Budget 2024-25, presenting a comprehensive financial plan focused on bolstering employment, skill development, support for MSMEs, and strengthening the middle class. The budget lays out ambitious targets, reforms, and initiatives aimed at achieving sustained economic growth and enhancing social welfare. Here’s an in-depth look at the key highlights and priorities of the budget:

Budget Estimates 2024-25

• Total Receipts (excluding borrowings): ₹32.07 lakh crore
• Total Expenditure: ₹48.21 lakh crore
• Net Tax Receipt: ₹25.83 lakh crore
• Fiscal Deficit: 4.9% of GDP, with a target to reduce it to below 4.5% in the coming year
• Inflation: Maintained at a low and stable level, targeting around 4%; Core inflation at 3.1%

The budget emphasizes a strong commitment to fiscal discipline while focusing on economic and social priorities to drive growth and stability.

Part-A: Strategic Focus Areas

1. Prime Minister’s Package for Employment and Skilling

The budget introduces a comprehensive package to create job opportunities and enhance skills for 4.1 crore youth over the next five years:

• Scheme A – First Timers: Provides a one-month salary of up to ₹15,000 in three installments to first-time employees registered with the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).
• Scheme B – Job Creation in Manufacturing: Offers incentives to both employees and employers regarding their EPFO contributions during the first four years of employment.
• Scheme C – Support to Employers: Reimburses up to ₹3,000 per month for two years towards EPFO contributions for each additional employee hired.

2. New Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Skilling

• Skill Development: A new scheme aims to skill 20 lakh youth over five years, including the upgrading of 1,000 Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in a hub-and-spoke model.
• Internships: A new scheme to facilitate internships for 1 crore youth in 500 top companies over five years.
• Skill Loans: Revision of the Model Skill Loan Scheme to offer loans up to ₹7.5 lakh and financial support for loans up to ₹10 lakh for higher education in domestic institutions.

3. Nine Budget Priorities in Pursuit of ‘Viksit Bharat’

The budget identifies nine key priorities to drive India towards becoming a developed nation:

1. Productivity and Resilience in Agriculture
2. Employment & Skilling
3. Inclusive Human Resource Development and Social Justice
4. Manufacturing & Services
5. Urban Development
6. Energy Security
7. Infrastructure
8. Innovation, Research & Development
9. Next Generation Reforms

Priority 1: Productivity and Resilience in Agriculture

• Allocation: ₹1.52 lakh crore for agriculture and allied sectors.
• High-Yielding Varieties: Release of 109 new high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of field and horticulture crops.
• Natural Farming: Initiation of 1 crore farmers into natural farming with certification and branding in the next two years, alongside establishing 10,000 bio-input resource centers.
• Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI): Implementation of DPI for Agriculture to cover farmers and their lands within three years.

Priority 2: Employment & Skilling

The budget outlines the following measures to enhance workforce participation and skills development:

• Women Workforce Participation: Establishment of working women hostels and crèches with industrial collaboration, women-specific skilling programs, and promotion of market access for women Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
• Skill Development: New centrally sponsored scheme to skill 20 lakh youth, with enhancements to skill loan schemes and financial support for higher education.

Priority 3: Inclusive Human Resource Development and Social Justice

• Purvodaya: Development of an industrial node at Gaya along the Amritsar-Kolkata Industrial Corridor, with a focus on power projects including a ₹21,400 crore investment in a new 2400 MW power plant.
• Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act: Special financial support of ₹15,000 crore through multilateral development agencies.
• Women-led Development: Over ₹3 lakh crore allocated for schemes benefiting women and girls.
• Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan: Socio-economic development of 5 crore tribal people across 63,000 villages.
• Bank Branches in North-Eastern Region: Establishment of 100 branches of India Post Payment Bank in the North East.

In Conclusion, The Union Budget 2024-25 presents a forward-looking and inclusive financial plan with a strong emphasis on employment creation, skill development, and support for MSMEs. The budget addresses key areas such as agriculture, manufacturing, and social justice while targeting a reduction in fiscal deficit and maintaining economic stability. By prioritizing these strategic areas, the government aims to foster sustainable growth and enhance the quality of life for all citizens.