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The first full-time woman Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman is set to make a record by presenting the sixth Budget in a row, five annual Budgets and one interim, a feat achieved so far only by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Desai holds the tag of presenting 10 Budgets, the maximum by any Finance Minister, had presented six of them, including one interim, in a row. With the presentation of interim Budget on February 1, Sitharaman will surpass the records of her predecessors like Dr Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P. Chidambaram, and Yashwant Sinha, who had presented five budgets in a row. Desai, as Finance Minister, had presented five annual Budgets and one interim Budget between 1959-1964.
Since the general elections are due this year, the interim Budget 2024-25 to be presented by Sitharaman on February 1, will be a vote-on-account that will give the Government authority to spend certain sums of money till a new government comes to office. A vote-on-account, once approved by Parliament, will authorise the Government to withdraw money from the Consolidated Fund of India on pro-rata basis to meet expenditure for the April-July period. The new government, which is likely to be formed around June, will come up with a final Budget for 2024-25 in July.
After the 2019 general elections, Sitharaman was given the charge of the finance portfolio in the newly re-elected Modi government. She became the second woman to have presented the Union Budget after Indira Gandhi, who had presented the Budget for financial year 1970-71. For a change, Sitharaman did away with the traditional budget briefcase and instead went for a bahi-khata with the National Emblem to carry the speech and other documents. Under her term, India has weathered the Covid-19 pandemic with an array of policy measures announced for the poor and continued its tag of the fastest growing major economy and a ‘bright spot’ in the world economy.
This budget, Sitharaman is expected to come up with some measures, especially to boost the rural sector as the agriculture sector growth in 2023-24 is estimated to decelerate to 1.8%, from 4%, in the preceding year. As this is the year of Lok Sabha elections, Sitharaman’s interim budget may not have prominent policy changes. Speaking at an industry event in December, Sitharaman had confirmed this and said there will not be any “spectacular announcement” in the interim budget. She said it would just be a vote-on-account before the general elections.
Sitharaman brought in some pathbreaking changes in the Budget procedure followed for years. During her tenure, India successfully navigated the challenges posed by the Covid pandemic through a range of policy measures aimed at supporting the underprivileged. Additionally, India maintained its position as the fastest growing major economy and a ‘bright spot’ in the global economy.
