Pre-poll budget meetings to weigh food, fertilizer sops
NEW DELHI : The finance ministry will hold a series of meetings with various ministries and departments starting early October to finalize the revised budget estimates for FY24 and the FY25 budget numbers with a pre-election focus on balancing a possible rise in subsidy requirements with the need to maintain fiscal prudence. As many as 65 meetings will be held within a span of a month, a person informed about the official schedule of consultations said.
The extensive consultations from 10 October to 14 November will assess the spending pattern so far this year, tax collection growth against the nominal gross domestic product (GDP) growth and any extra spending needed this fiscal year—especially for food and fertilizer subsidies, considering that they have been higher than last year in both absolute terms and as a share of the total budget allocation for the full year. The meetings are expected to start with the ministry of new and renewable energy, and the department of north eastern region and statistics and programme implementation on 10 October.
These will be followed by discussions with the ministries of rural development, power, housing and urban affairs and petroleum and natural gas ministry among others in October. Discussions with the fertilizer department, food ministry and agriculture ministry will be held in November, the person cited above said on condition of anonymity.
Given that it would be a pre-election budget, the political executive’s appetite for new ideas to be weaved into the budget is expected to be high. However, on Tuesday, the finance ministry chose to send a clear signal to the market that it will stick to its market borrowing plan, when it announced the second half borrowing calendar for FY24.
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