Interim Budget 2024: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Interim Budget 2024-25 ahead of the Lok Sabha elections scheduled later this year. The Union Budget is prepared annually by the Department of Economic Affairs, which operates under the Union Ministry of Finance.
Drafting The Union Budget
The exercise of drafting the Union Budget is spearheaded by the top bureaucrats in the PMO and the Finance Ministry. The exercise is a robust and complicated one. To begin with, North Block, the structure on New Delhi’s Raisina Hill that houses the Finance Ministry, goes into lockdown mode marked by the ceremonial ‘halwa’ ceremony. In a longstanding tradition, this ceremony marks the commencement of the Union Budget’s compilation and printing. It signifies the final stages of preparation of the Union Budget.
During the printing of the Union Budget, officials park themselves in the office with limited communication even with their families, given that it is one of India’s most guarded documents. In fact, the Finance Ministry has a floor for the nights that are spent in the North Block by the key members of the team involved in the printing the financial document. Actually, the budget-making exercise typically begins six months before the document is presented, preceded by meetings with industry leads, social sector analysts, economists and so on.
The annual Budget statement serves as a fundamental financial blueprint established by the governing administration, outlining projected government earnings and expenses for the forthcoming fiscal year.
But this year, an Interim Budget will be presented by the ruling government in Parliament. The current ruling government tables the Interim Budget when there is insufficient time to present a complete budget or when elections are due in the same year. Typically, it is the incoming government that is responsible for formulating the full budget.
Key Members
The key members involved in budget making are Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra, Ajay Seth, Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs, Tuhin Kanta Pandey, Secretary of the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management, Vivek Joshi, Secretary of the Department of Financial Services, TV Somanathan, Finance Secretary, V Anantha Nageswaran, Chief Economic Advisor, and FM Nirmala Sitharaman.
Besides them, P K Mishra, Principal Secretary to the PM and four additional secretaries to the PM including Arvind Shrivastava, Punya Salila Srivastava, Hari Ranjan Rao and Atish Chandra are also closely involved in the Budget preparations, a report in Moneycontrol said.
FM Sitharaman will be presenting her sixth straight Budget for fiscal year 2024–25, but as mentioned above the full Budget will be tabled after the Lok Sabha Elections scheduled for May 2024.
Finance Secretary Somanathan oversees the expenditure department and provides guidance to the Finance Minister on financial allocation. He has played a crucial role in implementing significant government initiatives, such as Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Finance Secretary TV Somanathan, a Tamil Nadu cadre officer, is the point-person for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in the Finance Ministry and has played a key role in crafting the schemes to contain the fallout of the pandemic. He is also instrumental in driving the capital expenditure spend across ministries, which is to the tune of Rs 10 lakh crore for FY24. Somanathan served as an Additional Secretary at the PMO before joining the Finance Ministry.
PK Mishra oversees all important policy matters of the government. A cabinet-ranking bureaucrat, he is the PM’s eyes and ears across ministries.
Arvind Shrivastava, the Finance and Economy officer in the PMO, is a 1994-batch IAS officer from the Karnataka cadre. The ministries of finance and corporate affairs and NITI Aayog come under his purview. He joined the PMO from the Finance Ministry where he was Joint Secretary.
Punya Salila Srivastava was appointed as Additional Secretary in the Home Ministry from November 2020 to October 2021, after which she moved to the PMO. A 1993-batch IAS officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, she was part of the team which briefed the media daily during the Covid pandemic. She handles the social and welfare verticals.
Hari Ranjan Rao is a 1994-batch IAS officer of the MP cadre and looks at technology and governance verticals at the PMO. Rao is the Former Secretary to the former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan and worked as Managing Director of the MP Tourism Board. Before joining the PMO, Rao was posted in the Department of Telecommunications.
Atish Chandra is a 1994-batch Bihar-cadre IAS officer and oversees the rural development vertical. Before joining the PMO, Chandra was posted as Food Corporation of India CMD.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Budget on February 1. This will be the vote-on-account budget before the general elections.
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