India: Sitharaman to present first budget of NDA government's third successive term on July 23

New Delhi: The first full budget of the BJP-led NDA government in its third successive term will be presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23.

The government on Saturday announced the dates of the budget session of Parliament which will start on July 22 and conclude on August 12.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who will present the Union Budget 2024-25, has been holding pre-budget consultations.

As part of the deliberations, she has met economists, experts in finance and capital markets, industry representatives and agriculture experts.

Industry bodies, including the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), have urged the government to increase capital expenditure in the upcoming budget.

This will be Sitharaman's seventh budget in a row. She will be the first Union Finance Minister to present seven consecutive union budgets. Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai had presented six budgets in a row.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiran Rijuju announced the dates of budget session.

"Hon'ble President of India, on the recommendation of the Government of India, has approved the proposal for summoning of both the Houses of Parliament for the Budget Session, 2024 from 22nd July 2024 to 12 August 2024 (Subject to exigencies of Parliamentary Business). Union Budget, 2024-25 will be presented in Lok Sabha on 23 July 2024," he posted on X.

The Modi government had presented an interim budget in February this year.

Sitharaman had announced in the interim budget that the capital expenditure outlay for the next year is being increased by 11.1 per cent to Rs 11,11,111 crore, which would be 3.4 per cent of the GDP.

The government had also announced that Rs one lakh crore corpus will be established with five-year interest free loan for youth.

Newly-elected Lok Sabha members took oath in the first session of 18th Lok Sabha held from June 24 to July 2 following the results of the general elections.

President Droupadi Murmu addressed the joint sitting of two Houses on June 27 and both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha adopted a motion of thanks on the President's address. Prime Minister Narendra Modi replied to the debate on the motion of thanks in the two Houses of Parliament.

BJP-led National Democratic Alliance returned to power for the third successive term in the general elections.