Budget 2024: What's coming up? A Sitharaman budget or a Naidu-Nitish budget?
Populist Budget Chances: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her seventh full budget on July 23. Her five budgets have been marked with fiscal prudence as well as aggressive capital expenditure and an emphasis on making India Atmanirbhar and boost manufacturing. The interim budget Sitharaman presented in February surprised many for its lack of populist proposals which were expected since it was a pre-poll budget.
But between the interim budget and the upcoming full budget, the situation has changed drastically. The BJP fell short of majority in the Lok Sabha elections and its NDA government is propped up by its allies, M. Chandrababu Naidu's TDP and Nitish Kumar's JD(U). After the results, there was speculation that both the allies will extract their pound of flesh for supporting the government by asking for key ministries and the speaker's post. But none of that happened. On the contrary, these allies expressed their unconditional support for the government.
However, now there is speculation that the TDP and the JD(U) would want Sitharaman to extend a favorable treatment to their states in the budget. Many think Sitharaman has the tough task to balance fiscal discipline and growth with the excessive demands of these allies.
A Sitharaman budget
A typical Sitharaman budget is expected to steer clear of populist measures or any special announcements driven by political expediency. In the Interim Budget, she had pegged fiscal deficit for FY25 at 5.1 per cent of GDP. She continued its focus on
