Union Budget 2023: Indicating that the upcoming Union Budget will continue to push growth on the back of public expenditure, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said it will “follow the spirit” of earlier budgets.
Sitharaman unveiled a massive public expenditure program to support the economy reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. She is scheduled to present her fifth straight budget on February 1 for the fiscal year beginning April.
In the budget, the finance minister raised capital expenditure by 35.4 per cent to Rs 7.5 lakh crore for the financial year 2022-23, as against Rs 5.5 lakh crore last year’s capex, to boost demand.
“It is very inspiring and motivating for me, especially at a time when we are preparing the next budget for the country, a budget that will follow the spirit of the previous budgets. We are going to set a template that has been set before But follow it and take it further for the next 25 years of India…” he said at an event here.
GDP growth has slowed in recent months due to global headwinds and rising interest rates globally to control rising inflation. This has prompted some to call for another government push to revive growth.
The Budget 2023-24 will be presented in the backdrop of several institutions, including the Reserve Bank, reducing India’s growth forecast for the current fiscal to 6.8 per cent or lower.
The RBI has projected real GDP growth at 6.8 per cent for 2022-23, 4.4 per cent in the third quarter and 4.2 per cent in the fourth quarter.
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is estimated at 7.1 per cent for the April-June period of 2023-24 and 5.9 per cent for the next quarter.
Next year’s budget will have to address key issues such as high levels of inflation, increase in demand, job creation and bring the economy back on a sustained 8 per cent plus growth path.
This will be the fifth budget of the Modi 2.0 government and Sitharaman and the last full budget before the general elections due in April-May 2024.
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