Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the interim budget today, ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, purportedly with a renewed emphasis on welfare schemes for four groups – “the poor, women, youth and farmers”.
Sitharaman kicked off the budget speech by recounting the economic achievements of the Modi government. She also said the government was working to make India a developed nation by 2047. The finance minister said there would be no changes in tax rates for direct and indirect taxes, including import duties, and the estimate for fiscal deficit for FY2025 has been tapered to 5.1 percent of the GDP against 5.8 percent in FY2024.
