Finance Minister Sitharaman will present the historic seventh consecutive Union Budget in a paperless format

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present her seventh Union Budget while the Monsoon Session of Parliament will begin from July 22.

With the presentation of this year’s Budget, Sitharaman will establish herself as the first finance minister to present seven consecutive Budgets, breaking Morarji Desai’s record of six Budget presentations.

Desai, who was the country’s Finance Minister from 1959 to 1964, presented a record six budgets for the country, of which five were full budgets and one was an interim budget.

Like the last few full Union Budgets, Budget 2024 will also be presented in paperless form. The Interim Union Budget 2024 was presented on February 1, as the country was due to go to the general elections.

As part of Budget preparation, the Finance Ministry has completed several rounds of consultations with various stakeholders in the economy.

These meetings began on June 20, during which Sitharaman met representatives from trade unions, education and health sector, employment and skills, MSMEs, trade and services, industry, economists, financial sector and capital markets, as well as infrastructure, energy and urban sectors.

During the meetings, economists discussed several important issues like boosting capital expenditure and reducing fiscal deficit.

The group of economists suggested to the ministry that the upcoming budget should focus on reducing the fiscal deficit while also addressing the need for employment generation.

Industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has suggested that the government should increase capital expenditure in the upcoming budget. Economists also stressed the need to increase capital expenditure.

Farmer organisations urged the Finance Minister to increase the budgetary allocation for the agriculture sector. Representatives from the skill and employment sector suggested ways to impart skills to the youth for better utilisation of the workforce.

This year, the monsoon session will have 19 meetings till August 12. The Modi government can introduce six bills, the most important among which are the Aircraft Act and the Parliament’s approval of the budget of Jammu and Kashmir.

The government will also introduce the Finance Bill after the budget announcement on July 23. Other bills include the Disaster Management Act, the Indian Aircraft Bill 2024, the Boiler Bill, the Coffee (Promotion and Development) Bill and the Rubber (Promotion and Development) Bill to be introduced in this year’s monsoon session.

The Indian Aircraft Bill 2024 will replace the Aircraft Act 1934 and streamline regulations in the civil aviation sector, helping industrialists in the sector.

The interim budget presented on February 1 addressed the financial needs for the period until the formation of a government after the Lok Sabha elections, after which a full budget was to be presented by the new government in July.

The Union Budget documents will be available on the “Union Budget Mobile App” for hassle-free access to Budget documents for Members of Parliament (MPs) and the general public.

The app is bilingual (English and Hindi) and is available on both Android and iOS platforms. The app can also be downloaded from the Union Budget web portal (www.indiabudget.gov.in).