Budget 2024: Here's What The Budget Masters Have To Say

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the interim Union budget 2024 in Parliament on Thursday.

The government's focus on infrastructure continued in the budget while paving the way for an increased financial consolidation, with positive surprise on the borrowings front. The housing sector stayed in the spotlight, and the government plans to set up a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus to back innovation.

While the full budget for the next financial year will be presented after the general election, Sitharaman made some key announcements with respect to taxes and provisions for states.

Here's what the Budget Masters from NDTV Profit's special budget shows have to say about the economic and financial roadmap announced in the budget:

The fiscal deficit of 5.1% is sort of paving the way for the pivot for the ease in monetary policy, according to Maneesh Dangi, founder, Macro Mosaic Investing and Research. "This is not a growth budget, this is a disinflation budget, and essentially, very good in the long and medium term."

Fiscal arithmetic looks credible as capital expenditure increase is higher than the overall increase in expenses, which is positive. "We are certainly seeing private capex kicking in the last 8–12 quarters."

Since corporate accruals have been strong, much of this private capex has been funded by accruals. "After we get the uncertainty of the elections out of the way, we can expect that corporate India will push the pedal on private capex as we go forward."

There is credibility in the revenue numbers and tax buoyancy with a positive surprise in deficit numbers. The mantle is now passed to the RBI, and the upcoming elections in India and the U.S. are going to determine how equity markets are going to move.

Going forward, the Union government cannot be doing most of the heavy lifting, and the mix has to change, he said. "It will be the state government and private capex that will have to do the bulk of the heavy lifting."

The government wants to build some trust with taxpayers, therefore, taxpayer-friendly measures from a compliance standpoint are what she is hinting at, he said. "But the real measure on tax will come in the main budget."

This government has been very prudent on the macros, he said. We are already at a deficit-conservative path when the whole world seems to be still with a lot of deficit, Sayta said.

Bet is on private capex as the government reduces borrowing footprint, according to Shankar Aaiyar, political economy analyst and author.

The key issue of private capex growth has been addressed. So, reducing the government footprint in the borrowing market has created a little room for the private sector, he said.