A Confident Step Up to the Elections
A pre-election budget can be seen as an indicator of a government’s assessment of its prospects at the polls. It is often leveraged as an opportunity to appeal to the electorate by announcing large social programmes—even providing direct financial commitments for welfare schemes.
If that is used as a barometer for India’s Interim Budget 2024-25, then it would seem that the Government is quite confident of a third term. The Interim Budget presented by Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman steered clear of any last-minute sops, instead charting a steady course that maintains the momentum on key focus areas of the Government: Green Growth, Infrastructure & Development, Social Development, Technology & Innovation, Agriculture, and Taxation.
The Government clearly feels that it has its bases covered before the elections—that the economy is on the right track, welfare is reaching those intended, and there is no real need for any last-minute policy tweaks. The full budget, to be presented in July this year after the elections, will paint a fuller picture of the country’s politico-economic trajectory for the years to come.
Read EGA's full Analysis of India's Interim Budget 2024-25 here.
