Interim Budget 2024 Highlights

As we stand at the dawn of an auspicious year, Honourable Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, with great pride and responsibility presented the Interim Budget for the year 2024. This budget is not merely a financial statement; it is a blueprint for our nation's journey towards a "Viksit Bharat" by the year 2047.

In this pivotal year, Our Honourable Finance Minister reiterated powerful mantra of ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas’, a guiding principle that ensures inclusive growth and collective trust.

The next five years are not just a passage of time, but a corridor of opportunities, marking a period of unprecedented development. These years are poised to be the golden moments in our relentless pursuit of realizing the dream of a developed India, an aspiration that lies at the heart of every citizen.

Echoing the inspirational slogan by adding “Jai Anusandhan” by our Honourable Prime Minister to “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan, Jai Vigyan", we reinforce our belief that innovation is the cornerstone of national development, which in turn can be analysed as the Government’s continuing support to start-up ecosystem.

Through this budget, Our Honourable Finance Minister aims to nurture the seeds of creativity, innovation, and technology-driven development, ensuring that India not only keeps pace with the global advancements but emerges as a leader in the new age economy.

Indeed, this budget may not bring major Tax related proposals but it is for the people of India, and it is with the inclusive participation rightly echoed “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, and Sabka Vishwas” that we will realize the vision of a prosperous, inclusive, and developed nation.

SECTOR-WISE UPDATES

Infrastructure

‘Reform, perform, and Transform’

• 11.1% Increase in Capital outlay to Rs. 11,11,111 crores, which amounts to 3.4% of GDP.

• Continuous efforts by the Govt. to make the eastern region a powerful driver of India’s growth.

• Support of expansion of Metro Rail and NaMo Bharat in large cities.

• Development of E-vehicle Ecosystem, by supporting charging infrastructure Facilities. Strengthening E-Bus public transport network by strengthening payment security mechanism.

Finance

‘A golden era for tax savvy youth’

• Special attention and continuous focus on MSMEs, will lead them towards a more competitive globally.

• Support to states for development of Aspirational districts and blocks.

• Establishment of Rs 1 lakh crore Corpus for 50 yrs. interest-free loans

• Purpose of this corpus: - Long term finance/Refinance, Low/Nil Interest rates, Scale of research and innovation in sunrise domain.

Health Sector

'Building Wellness’

• Government plans to set up more medical colleges utilizing the existing hospital infrastructure under various departments to set up and examine the patient.

• Encouragement of vaccination for prevention of cervical cancer to the girls in age group of 9 years to 14 years.

• Various comprehensive programs will be implemented.

• Upgradation of Anganwadi centres under “Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0” for early childhood and improved nutrition for child health care.

• The mission “Indradhanush” will be rolled out through newly design U-WIN platform for immunization of the country.

• Ayushman Bharat scheme will be extended to all Asha workers, Anganwadi workers and Helpers.

Power Sector

‘Empowering the AMRIT KAAL With Solar Energy’

One crore household will get benefit of up to 300 monthly units of free electricity via rooftop solarisation.

Benefits from rooftop solarisation scheme will be:

• The households will save approximately 15,000 to 18,000 rupees annually by using free solar electricity and selling any surplus to distribution companies.

• Encouragement to buy E-vehicles because through energy they can charge electric vehicles.

• The initiative will create numerous employments for the youth with technical skills & entrepreneurship opportunities in manufacturing, installation and maintenance.

Railway

‘On Track to Prosperity’

• Conversion of 40,000 normal rail bogies into Standards of Vande Bharat for safety and comforts of passengers.

• Implementation of 3 railway corridor programmes under PM Gati Shakti: -

1. Energy, mineral & cement corridors

2. Port connectivity corridor

3. High traffic density corridor

• Benefits of this corridors described by our Finance Minister

1. Improvement in passenger train operations in safety and travel speed due to high traffic corridor.

2. Acceleration in GDP growth and reduction in logistic cost due to this corridor programs.

Green Energy

‘Achieve net Zero by 2070’

• India, at the 26th session of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP 26) in November, 2021, announced its target to achieve net zero by 2070.

What is Net Zero?

Zeroing out human-caused greenhouse gas emissions by reducing emissions and implementing carbon dioxide absorption methods to combat

• Measures announced: -

1. Viability gap funding for offshore wind energy potential for initial capacity of 1 Gigawatt

2. Set up of coal gasification and liquefaction capacity of 100 MT by 2030.

3. Implementation of blending of compressed bio-gas (CBG) in Compressed natural gas (CNG) for transport.

4. Implementation of Piped Natural Gas (PNG) to be mandated in phased manner.

5. Government to launch a scheme of Bio manufacturing and bio foundry for bio degradable polymers, bio plastics, bio pharmaceuticals, and bio Agri-inputs

Woman Empowerment

‘Lakhpati Didi Scheme’

• Under this scheme, SHG women would be trained in different skills.

• Target of Lakhpati Didi Scheme to be enhanced to 3 crores from 2 crores.

• Achievements of women under this scheme to be honoured by the Government  

Housing Sector

'The Growth of middle class’

• Government will build further 2 crores more houses in next 5 years to meet the arising requirement though PM Awas Yojana (Grameen)

• A scheme will be launched to help middle class to move from rented house to buy or build their own houses.

Agriculture

‘Empowering Annadata’

• Continuing promotion of private and public investment post-harvest activities along with aggregation, modern storage, efficient supply chains, primary and secondary processing and marketing and branding.

• Government to expand application of Nano Dap on various crops in all Agro-climatic zones.

• A comprehensive strategy to promote 'atmanirbharta' (self-reliance) in oilseeds production such as mustard, groundnut, sesame, soybean, and sunflower

• A comprehensive programme will be launched for supporting dairy farmers.

• Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojna to be stepped up to enhance Aquaculture productivity from 3 to 5 tons per hectare, doubling of exports to Rs. 1 Lakh crore and 55 Lakh employment generation.

• Setup of 5 Integrated Aqua parks.

Tourism

‘Explore India, Discover Vibrance’

• Encouragement to state government to develop iconic tourist centre along with their branding & marketing.

• Rating framework of such centres based on their quality of services and facilities to be established.

• Long-term interest-free loans to be provided to states for financing such developments.

• To encourage domestic tourism, special projects for port connectivity, tourism infra, and amenities to be taken up on island including Lakshadweep.

Other Sectors

‘Tech, Skies, and Seas: Pioneering India's Future’

1. Technology

• A new scheme will be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence.

2. Aviation

• Over 1000 new aircrafts have been pro-actively ordered by Indian Carriers.

• Government to expand existing airports and develop new airports.

3. Blue Economy

• Under Blue Economy 2.0, a scheme relating to restoration and adaptation measures, and coastal aquaculture and mariculture with integrated and multi-sectoral approach will be launched.

4. Viksit Bharat

• Proposal of provision of 50-year interest free loan of Rs. 75,000 crores to support State Government for reforms linked with Viksit Bharat.

• A high-power committee to be formed to consider challenges from fast population growth and demographic changes.

 

DIRECT TAX KEY DEVELOPMENTS OVER THE YEARS AND BUDGET UPDATES:

1. Significant development in Processing of IT returns from Average 93 days to mere 10 days thereby tax refunds and processing of IT Returns in a superfast manner.

2. Widening of tax base to 2.4 times of last 10 years’ tax return filers.

3. Introduction of updated tax returns and revamped Form 26AS since last few years.

4. Prefilling of IT Returns had been introduced thereby filing tax returns simplified over the last few years.

5. No changes in slab rates and corporate tax in the Budget 2024.

6. Tax benefits to certain startups and investments made by soverin wealth for pension funds and certain income of units of IFSC have been extended to 31.03.2025 from 31.03.2024.

WITHDRAWAL OF OLD DEMANDS

Vision to improve ease of doing business, Withdrawal of Disputed, Unreconciled, Non-Verified petty tax demands for the financial years 2009-10 to 2014-15.Amount of withdrawal is as per below table:

Financial Year	Demand withdrawal (Rs.)
2009-10 and prior	Up to Rs. 25,000
2010-11 to 2014-15	Up to Rs. 10,000

 

CHANGES IN INDIRECT TAX

1. Definition of Input service distributor has changed and also Input Service Distributor (ISD) Mechanism made compulsory.

2. New Section of Penalty introduced (Section 122A) for penalty in case on failure to register certain machines used in manufacture of goods.

3. Where any person engaged in the manufacture of goods contravenes the special procedure relating to the registration of machines, they shall be liable to pay a penalty of one lakh rupees for each unregistered machine, in addition to any other penalties under Chapter XV.

4. Unregistered machines are subject to seizure and confiscation, except when the penalty is paid, and registration is completed within three days of receiving the penalty order.

GST KEY DEVELOPMENTS OVER THE YEARS

1. Positive sentiment about GST - Gst Survey By A Leading Consulting Firm

• 94% industry leasers view transition to GST as largely positive.

• 80% of respondents feel GST has led to supply-chain  supply chain optimization and the elimination of tax arbitrage and octroi, resulting in the dismantling of check posts at state and city boundaries.

2. Revenue Doubled in GST

The tax base of GST has more than doubled, and the average monthly gross GST collection has almost doubled to ?1.66 lakh crore this year. Increase in tax buoyancy of State revenue from 0.72 (2012-16) to 1.22 in the post-GST period (2017-23).

3. Consumers: Prime Beneficiaries

The biggest beneficiaries are consumers, as the reduction in logistics costs and taxes has lowered prices of most goods and services.

4. Customs Trade Facilitation Measures

The import release time has declined over the last four years since 2019 as per below table:

Facility	By Reduction (%)	To Hours
Inland Container Depots	47	71
Air Cargo Complexes	28	44
Sea Ports	27	85

Disclaimer: This material and the information contained herein is intended for clients and other Chartered Accountants to provide updates and is not an exhaustive treatment of such subject. We are not, by means of this material, rendering any professional advice or services. It should not be relied upon as the sole basis for any decision which may affect you or your business.