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Keeping with tradition, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman first called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan together with her collegaues Ministers of State Bhagwat Karad and Pankaj Chaudhary ahead of the Budget presentation in Parliament on Thursday morning.
Sitharaman earlier arrived at the Finance Ministry ahead of her big speech in Parliament today. She was seen carrying a red-coloured 'bahi khata' which contains Budget document, in paperless form. Over the past past three years, a new tradition has been set, where the finance minister carries budget documents in electronic form in a bahi khata. At 11 am, Union Finance Minister Sitharaman will table the interim budget as the Lok Sabha polls are due to be held this year. This will be her sixth Budget as the Finance Minister and last in the second term of the the Modi government. The interim budget will take care of the financial needs of the intervening period until a government is formed after the Lok Sabha polls after which a full budget will be presented by the new government. With this Budget Presentation Sitharaman will equal the record set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who as finance minister, presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964. The Budget Session of Parliament commenced on Wednesday with President Droupadi Murmu addressing a joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. In her address to Praliament, the President said the year 2023 was a historic year for the country and among other steps, the country kept up the momentum of being the fastest-growing major economy. "The year 2023 was a historic year for India when it grew the fastest among major economies despite the global crisis. India grew about 7.5 per cent for two consecutive quarters," she said. The last session of Parliament before Lok Sabha polls, expected to be held in April-May this year, will have a total of eight sittings spread over 10 days. On Wednesday, a day before the session , Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, at an all-party meeting, said the budget session would mainly be devoted to the financial business relating to the interim union budget for 2024-25 and discussion on the Motion of Thanks on the President's Address. However, essential legislative and other business may also be taken up during this session. The all-party meeting was attended by 45 leaders from 30 political parties. In addition, he also informed that Supplementary Demands for Grants for 2023-24 in respect of the Union Government will be discussed. The Indian economy is projected to grow close to 7 per cent in the financial year 2024-25 which starts this April, said the Ministry of Finance in a review report. India's economy grew 7.2 per cent in 2022-23 and 8.7 per cent in 2021-22. The Indian economy is expected to grow 7.3 per cent in the current financial year 2023-24, remaining the fastest-growing major economy. The last full Budget of Modi government 2.0 had proposed to increase capital expenditure outlay by 33 per cent to Rs 10 lakh crore in 2023-24, which would be 3.3 per cent of the GDP. It was almost three times the outlay in 2019-20. (ANI)
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