There's a knot in Sitharaman's interim budget purse strings

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Budget 2024: Speaking at an event by industry chamber CII a month ago, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman casually remarked that the upcoming Interim Budget might not have any «spectacular» announcements. If you also consider the BJP's recent victories in three big states which are seen to have placed the party on a strong footing for the Lok Sabha elections in May, you can assume that the Interim Budget, to be presented on February 1, will be shorn of any grand populist schemes that require hefty financial support.

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The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, however, may not let the opportunity a pre-election budget presents go waste.

In the Interim Budget 2019, then finance minister Piyush Goyal had made a spectacular announcement which many believed had considerably helped the BJP's prospects in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Goyal launched Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) to provide assured income support to small and marginal farmers.

Under the scheme, vulnerable landholding farmer families, having cultivable land upto two hectares, were provided direct income support at the rate of Rs. 6,000 per year.

This income support was to be transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers, in three equal instalments of Rs. 2,000 each.