Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to become the second Finance Minister to present Budget for the sixth time in a row. With the Interim budget on Feb 1, Sitharaman would be breaking the records of her predecessors like Manmohan Singh, P Chidambaram, Arun Jaitley and Yashwanth Sinha who presented 5 budgets in a row.
Nirmala Sitharaman, the first full time woman Finance Minister is achieving this feat after former Prime Minister Morarji Desai who presented 5 annual Budgets and one interim Budget between 1959-1964.
An interim Budget is presented whenever the government does not have enough time to present a full budget or when the general elections are scheduled for that year. This budget 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 after the April-May general elections.
Also Read: Budget 2024: FM Nirmala Sitharaman confirms no major announcements
As the Parliamentary elections are due, Sitharaman's interim budget may not contain any major policy changes. Speaking at an industry event last month, Sitharaman had ruled out any "spectacular announcement" in the interim budget, saying it would just be a vote-on-account before the general elections.
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 sometime in July. Usually, interim budgets do not contain major policy announcements, but nothing stops the government from taking steps which are necessary to deal with the urgent issues facing the economy.