Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the interim budget as “inclusive and innovative” (hatke, unique), highlighting its power to strengthen the four pillars of Viksit Bharat: Yuva, Garib, Mahila, and Kisan.
PM Modi on Interim Budget:
“This budget guarantees making India a developed nation by 2047,” the Prime Minister added. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her sixth straight budget on February 1.
“This interim budget is inclusive and innovative. It has confidence in continuity. It will empower all 4 pillars of Viksit Bharat: Yuva, Garib, Mahila, and Kisan. This budget guarantees making India a developed nation by 2047.”
For Interim Budget in Detail:
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In his address, the Prime Minister also said that the budget stresses empowerment of the poor and middle class, creating new opportunities, constructing houses for the poor, 3 crore (earlier, 2 crores), ‘Lakhpati Didis‘, ASHA and Aganwadi workers, and more.
“This budget stresses the empowerment of the poor and middle class and the creation of new employment opportunities for them. It has been announced to construct 2 crore more houses for the poor. We aim to have 3 crore ‘Lakhpati Didis’ now. ASHA and Aganwadi workers will also get the benefit of the Ayushman Bharat scheme.”
The Prime Minister also spoke on the income-tax remission scheme, saying, “It will provide relief to 1 crore people from the middle class. In this budget, important decisions have been taken for the farmers.”
“In this budget, keeping the fiscal deficit under control, capital expenditure has been given a historic high of ₹11,11,111 crore. If we speak the languages of the economists in a manner, this is a “sweet spot”. With this, besides building India’s modern infrastructure of the 21st century, innumerable new job opportunities for the youth will be prepared,” PM Modi added.
He further called this budget a reflection of young aspirations of a young India.
“This budget is a reflection of the young aspirations of a young India. Two important decisions were made within the budget. For research and innovation, a fund of ₹1 lakh crore has been announced,” he said.
Opposition Slams Interim Budget
The opposition, however, claimed the budget lacked substance.
“It was one of the shortest speeches on record in the Budget. Not very much came out of it. As usual, there is a lot of rhetorical language and very little concrete implementation. She talked about foreign investment without acknowledging that that investment has come down significantly,” Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said.
Karnataka minister Priyank Kharge said Sitharaman only gave catchy slogans. “Nothing concrete has happened,” he said.
Interim Budget and Ram Mandir:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the Pradhanmantri Suryodaya Yojana with the target of installing rooftop solar earlier in January.
The recently inaugurated Ram temple in Ayodhya was mentioned in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Interim Budget speech in Parliament on Thursday, February 1.
While highlighting the Pradhanmantri Suryodaya Yojana, Nirmala Sitharaman said in her interim Budget speech that through rooftop solarization, one crore households will be enabled to obtain up to 300 units of free electricity each month. “This scheme follows the resolve of the Prime Minister on the historic day of consecration of the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya,” Sitharaman added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the Pradhanmantri Suryodaya Yojana with the target of installing rooftop solar earlier in January.
“I have taken my first decision after returning from Ayodhya that our government will launch ‘Pradhan Mantri Suryoday Yojna’ to install rooftop solar systems in one crore houses,” Modi had said on X.
Benefits under the scheme
Talking about the benefits, Sitharaman informed the House that there will be “savings up to ₹15,000-18,000 annually for households from free solar electricity and selling the surplus to the distribution companies.”.
Under the scheme, people will be able to charge their electric vehicles; it will provide entrepreneurship opportunities for a large number of vendors for supply and installation and employment opportunities for the youth with technical skills in manufacturing, installation, and maintenance.
Talking about India’s commitment to ‘net zero’ by 2070, she announced a viability gap in funding for harnessing offshore wind energy.
“Viability gap funding will be provided for harnessing offshore wind energy potential for an initial capacity of 1 GW,” the minister said.