Interim Budget 2024-25: Key numbers to watch out

Interim Budget 2024: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her sixth budget, and the last one before the general elections expected in April-May, on February 1. The Centre will seek to build on the growth momentum witnessed in the past two years without undermining fiscal discipline.

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ET looks at some of the key budget components:

1. Budget Size: This will be the most-tracked number ahead of general polls, as it will reveal the govt’s fiscal support to the economy and various welfare programmes.

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2. Capital Spending: Government capex, with high multiplier effect, has helped spur investment led growth in the absence of a broad-based resurgence in private investment.

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3. Fiscal Deficit: It reflects Budget’s fiscal stimulus, or lack of it, and indicates if the govt is on its stated fiscal course correction path.

4. Nominal GDP growth: Mainly tracked for govt’s revenue assumptions and tax buoyancy; high growth helps govt contain fiscal deficit ratio.

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5. Net tax mop-up: Tax and other receipts are looked at to assess the govt’s ability to spend without worsening fiscal gap. If they fall short, borrowing will have to be raised or spending cut.

6. Disinvestment: This will signal government's privatisation goals amid latest setback on the strategic sale front; it also adds to the government's revenue mop-up.

7. RBI dividend: No special mention of RBI dividend in Budget but it’s a part of “dividends and profits”. Generous RBI dividends have helped the government narrow its fiscal gap.

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8. Market Borrowing: It has a bearing on interest rates and bond yields; excessive market borrowing by govt can crowd out private players.

The outlay for the poor:
1. MGNREGS: It provides employment opportunity to mainly unskilled workers to prevent rural distress.

2. Food security: It funds the programme that ensures food for the poor and also finances procurement to prevent distress sales by farmers.