New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present Interim Budget – 2024 in Lok Sabha on Thursday at 11 am. Before submitting the budget in Parliament Nirmala Sitharaman will meet President Draupadi Murmu and explain the budget details to President.

Later she and her official team will reach the Parliament and take the cabinet ascent to the budget and later it will present in Lok Sabha. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed confidence that he would achieve a third straight victory and said that the full budget will be presented by a BJP-led Government when it is formed after the Lok Sabha polls.

Salaried taxpayers are hoping for a change in income tax slabs, a higher standard deduction limit and a hike in exemptions under Sections 80C and 80D.  For Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), the expectation is that the government will bring in policies to ease regulatory procedures, reduce compliance burdens and provide greater access to loans.

President Droupadi Murmu in her address at the joint sitting of the Houses of Parliament on Wednesday, said that the Government is moving ahead with the guarantee of fulfilling the dreams of 140 crore countrymen.

Sitharaman will present her sixth straight budget, equalling the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Arun Jaitely, Pranab Mukharjee, Chidambaram, Manmohan Singh present five straight budgets in Lok Sabha as Finance Ministers.

 

Opposition members claimed the Government had written an election speech for the President and said that issues such as income inequality, unemployment and price rise had not been addressed.