No ‘spectacular announcement’ in February’s interim budget, says Finance Minister

But in the interim budget of 2019, ahead of general elections that year, the government had announced tax sops for the lower and middle classes by raising the tax exemption limit — from Rs 2,50,000 per annum to Rs 5,00,000 per annum. It had also increased the standard deduction to Rs 50,000 from Rs 40,000.

“It is a matter of truth that the February 1, 2024 Budget that will be announced will just be a vote-on-account because we are in an election mode and election happens during the coming summer.

So the Budget that the government presents would just be a Budget to meet the expenditure of the government till a new government comes to play. So that Budget following the British tradition is called vote-on-account. So, no spectacular announcements are made at that time. You may have to wait till after the new government comes in. In July 2024, there will be the next full Budget. So things have to wait till then,” Sitharaman said at the CII Global Economic Policy Forum.

The Lok Sabha elections are set to be held around April-May 2024, after which the government will present a full Budget in July 2024. On February 1, Sitharaman will present an interim budget in Parliament for 2024-25, beginning April 1, 2024.

The Finance Ministry had earlier asked all the government departments to submit well-thought-out expenditure proposals for the first six months of the next financial year to avoid fund shortages before the full Budget is approved by the parliament next year. The government, however, will give estimates of full-year revenue receipts, expenditure and fiscal deficit for FY25 in the interim budget. New tax and non-tax measures are likely to then come up later in the full budget in July 2024.