The Finance Minister announced new tax slabs. Photo: Screenshot via YouTube/Parliament TV.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on 1 February that the fiscal deficit would be brought down to below 4.5% by 2025-26.
He also said that tax receipts are budgeted at Rs 23.3 lakh crore for the next fiscal and states will be allowed 3.5% of GDP as fiscal deficit. To finance the fiscal deficit in 2023-24, total market borrowing from dated securities is estimated at ₹11.8 lakh crore, Ms Sitharaman said while presenting Union Budget for 2023-24 In Lok Sabha.
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It retained the fiscal deficit target of 6.4% in the revised estimate for FY2022-23 and reduced it to 5.9% for the next fiscal. The government had pegged the fiscal deficit at 6.4% of GDP for the current financial year.
The fiscal deficit or the gap between expenditure and revenue for 2022-23 is estimated to be Rs 16,61,196 crore. The country’s fiscal deficit for 2021-22 was projected to be higher at 6.9% as compared to 6.8% estimated earlier.
The Revised Estimates for 2021-22 indicate a fiscal deficit of Rs 15,91,089 crore against the Budget Estimate of Rs 15,06,812 crore. The minister also announced a new savings scheme, Mahila Samman Savings Certificate, with a maximum deposit limit of Rs 2 lakh and an interest rate of 7.5% for two years till 2025.
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He said the 50-year interest-free loan to state governments is to be spent on capital expenditure within 2023-24.
The Finance Minister announced that the monthly income scheme limit would be doubled to Rs 9 lakh and Rs 15 lakh for joint accounts. Ms Sitharaman said the indirect tax proposals would encourage green mobility and electric vehicles (EVs).