New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is poised to make history by presenting her seventh consecutive Budget overtaking the record set by former Prime Minister and Finance Minister Morarji Desai.
Sitharaman, who delivered the longest budget speech on February 1, 2020, lasting two hours and 40 minutes, will now hold the record for the most consecutive budget presentations. Desai presented six budgets during his tenure as Finance Minister from 1959 to 1963 and from 1967 to 1969. He still holds the overall record for the most budget speeches, with ten in total, serving under former Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri.
The Union Budget 2024 aims to lay a roadmap for Viksit Bharat by 2047. Following the budget presentation, Sitharaman will address a press conference alongside Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary, Finance Secretary T. V. Somanathan, other Finance Ministry Secretaries, and Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran.
The Union Budget is expected to focus on several key areas, including greater allocations for the rural economy, taxation reforms, infrastructure development, local manufacturing, job and skill creation, and increased production-linked incentive (PLI) allocations to labor-intensive sectors.
Changes in the income tax structure to benefit taxpayers and measures to improve the ease of doing business are also anticipated to be major highlights.
Source- IANS