Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the upcoming Union Budget on February 1, 2024, would not have any ‘spectacular announcements’. She added that it will be a vote on account to be tabled weeks before the 2024 general elections. The vote on account is an interim budget through which the incumbent government asks Parliament to approve the expenditure required to run till the new government assumes office.
"It is a matter of truth that the February 1, 2024 budget that will be announced will just be a vote on the account because we will be in an election mode. So the budget that the government presents will just be to meet the expenditure of the government till a new government comes to play,” Sitharaman was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
While speaking at the CII Global Economic Policy Forum, Sitharaman clarified that the country will be in an election mode in 2024 so the budget will be vote on account and the new government will present its budget.
"No spectacular announcements come in that time (in vote on account). So you will have to wait till after new government comes in and presents next full Budget in July 2024," she added.
According to Article 116 of the Indian Constitution, is an advance payment made by the Consolidated Fund of India to the government to meet its short-term expenditure requirements till the start of the next financial year. The upcoming government is responsible for presenting the full Budget.
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Nirmala Sitharaman will present an interim budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, starting from April 1, 2024, in the Lok Sabha. She became the Finance Minister on May 31, 2019. She presented her first budget on July 5, 2019. Sitharam is India's full-time finance minister.