India's fiscal prudence during the pandemic is a role model for the world, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing the inaugural session of ‘Journey Towards Viksit Bharat: A Post Union Budget 2024-25 Conference’ organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi.
India is showing high growth and low inflation in a low-growth and high-inflation global scenario, the prime minister says adding that the country's foreign exchange reserve witnessed robust growth.
Referring to the uncertainties of the current global scenario, the prime minister highlighted the exception of India’s growth and stability. India’s contribution to global goods and services export is consistently increasing, the prime minister says. He emphasised that India’s contribution to global growth has reached 16% despite significant global shocks like the pandemic, natural disasters and wars.
The Prime Minister compared the current Budget of ₹48 lakh crore with ₹16 lakh crore Budget of 2013-14, an increase of three times. Capital expenditure, the biggest measure of resource investment was ₹90,000 crore in 2004, which was taken to ₹2 lakh crore in the 10 years up to 2014, a 2 times increase. In comparison, this important indicator has reached beyond ₹11 lakh crore today a more than 5 times increase.
“If you will look at different sectors, you will get an idea as to how India is focussing on each one of them,” says the prime minister. Drawing a comparison with the previous government, Modi says in the last 10 years, the budgets of railways and highways have seen an increase of 8 times. Meanwhile, the agricultural and defense budgets have witnessed a jump of more than 4 and 2 times, respectively.
The prime minister emphasised that the record increase in every sector’s budget has been carried out. “In 2014, MSMEs earning ₹1 crore had to pay presumptive tax, now MSMEs with income up to ₹3 crore can also take advantage of this. In 2014, MSMEs earning up to ₹50 crore had to pay 30% tax, today this rate is 22 percent. In 2014, companies used to pay 30% corporate tax, today this rate is 25% for companies with income up to ₹400 crore,” says PM Modi.
Modi recalled that before 2014, big announcements used to be made in the budgets to create a facade of a healthy economy. However, the very announcements did not see the day of light when it came to their implementation on the ground. They were unable to spend even the allocated sum on infrastructure completely. “We have changed this situation in the last 10 years. You all have witnessed the speed and scale at which we are completing every infrastructure project,” Modi says.
On the PM Package worth ₹2 lakh crore in this year’s budget, the prime minister says it will benefit more than 4 crore youth. “PM Package is holistic and comprehensive. It is interlinked with end-to-end solutions,” he says. Prime Minister Modi says the vision behind the PM Package is to make India’s manpower and products globally competitive in terms of quality and value. PM Modi also touched upon the internship scheme introduced to enhance skill and exposure for the youth, thereby boosting their chances of employment.
The Prime Minister underlined some points in the budget such as increased allocation for nuclear power generation, Digital Public Infrastructure for agriculture, Bhu-Aadhar card for providing number to land parcels of farmers, ₹1000 crore venture capital fund for space economy, Critical Mineral Mission, and upcoming auction of offshore blocks for mining. “These new announcements will open new avenues of progress,” he says.
