Ensuring more power to infrastructure development for economic growth and employment creation, a large sum of Rs 11,11,111 crore has been set aside as the capital expenditure outlay in the interim budget 2024. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said the outlay for 2024 is 3.4 percent of the GDP.
“Building on the massive tripling of the capital expenditure outlay in the last four years, resulting in a huge multiplier impact on economic growth and employment creation, the outlay for the next year is being increased by 11.1 percent to Rs 11,11,111 crore. This would be 3.4% of the GDP (gross domestic product),” she said.
It is important to note that the interim budget is only valid for the first four months 2024-2025 fiscal. The Lok Sabha elections will be held around April-May and the complete budget will only be presented after the new government is formed. The interim budget is simply a vote on account for Parliament’s approval for a grant in advance to meet the expenditure of the union government.
The finance minister said the government is aware that there is a fast-expanding middle class, and rapid urbanisation is taking place. “Metro rail and NaMo Bharat can be the catalyst for the required urban transformation. Expansion of these systems will be supported in large cities focusing on transit-oriented development,” she said.
About the aviation sector, she said the number of airports in the country has doubled to 149 in the last 10 years. “The aviation sector has been galvanised in the last 10 years… Rollout of air connectivity to tier-II and tier-III cities under UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik) scheme has been widespread. At least 517 new routes are carrying 1.3 crore passengers,” she added.
Indian carriers have proactively placed orders for over 1,000 new aircrafts. Expansion of existing airports and development of new ones will continue expeditiously, Sitharaman said.
Among the ministries, defence has got Rs 6.2 lakh crore, followed by road transport and highways at Rs 2.78 lakh crore. The railways is at the third position with Rs 2.55 lakh crore allocation.
Last year, when the finance minister presented the union budget 2023-24, the capital expenditure (capex) target was increased by 33 percent to Rs 10 lakh crore, which was 3.3 percent of the GDP. Before that, in 2022, she raised capital expenditure by 35.4 percent for the 2022-23 fiscal to Rs 7.5 lakh crore.
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