New Delhi: The full budget for 2024-25 presented by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament has accelerated the thrust of the Interim Budget on empowering youth, women, farmers and the poor, with the introduction of bold path-breaking initiatives to increase employment and enhance incomes in these priority segments of society.
As part of the bigger push to create more jobs, the Finance Minister announced the Prime Minister’s package comprising five schemes aimed at facilitating employment and skilling, with an allocation of Rs 2 lakh crore in the full budget.
There has been a huge increase in the support for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that have the potential of generating large scale employment.
The budget has also allocated as much as Rs 3 lakh crore in programmes that will enable more women to enter the workforce and contribute to the country’s inclusive development aligned with the ‘Viksit Bharat’ goal, the Finance Minister said.
Similarly, a robust allocation of Rs 5.2 lakh crore has been made for agriculture and allied sectors to enhance the earnings of farmers.
The full budget has also strengthened the country’s financial consolidation path as the fiscal deficit target has been reduced to 4.9 per cent of the GDP for 2024-25 compared to 5.1 per cent fixed in the Interim Budget.
The government has reduced its planned gross market borrowing by Rs 12,000 crore for FY 2025. The new borrowing target is Rs 14.01 lakh crore, down from the Rs 14.13 lakh crore announced in the Interim Budget.
This has been made possible as tax collections in the fast-growing economy have turned out to be higher than expected and the RBI has also delivered a huge dividend to the government.
The reduced borrowings by the government will leave more money in the banking system for companies to borrow for investments which will help to spur growth and create more jobs, according to economists.
A lower fiscal deficit also helps to keep inflation in check which ensures a stable growth path for the economy.
