Indian FM Nirmala Sitharaman stated that the expenditure for fiscal year 2024-25 will increase to Rs.11.11 trillion on infrastructure development. The fiscal deficit for 2023-24 has been set at 5.8% of GDP and government has decided to reduce it to 5.1% of GDP for 2024-25. The target for 2025-26 has been set at 4.5% and government is looking to improve infrastructure to grow the income further.
They have also increased tax exemptions to start-ups till March, 2025. Nirmala Sitharaman has further said, ““For our tech-savvy youth, this will be a golden era. A corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore will be established with 50-year interest free loan provided. The corpus will provide long term financing and re-financing with long tenures at low or nil interest rates. This will encourage the private sector to scale up research and innovation significantly in sunrise domains.”
For National Highways improvement and building, Union Government has increased expenditure to Rs.2.58 lakhs crores. Government taking forward the ‘net zero’ emissions target, they have decided to bring Electric Buses. E-Buses will be introduced after Government builts more charging ports and after bringing all the important infrastructure developments.
Also, Finance Minister has announced that Airports will be improved further as well. Minister announced that they have grown the number of airports to 149. She stated that through Udaan program they have introduced 517 new routes. And FM stated that this growth in Aerospace industry will be going on.
Union Budget 2024: India to introduce railway economic corridors