Finance ministry to begin budget 2023-24 preparations from October 10
Premium- It will be the fifth budget of the Modi 2.0 government and Sitharaman and the last full budget before the general elections slated in April-May 2024.
The Central Government will begin the exercise for preparing the Union Budget 2023-24 from October 10 onwards, according to a circular issued by the budget division of the Finance Ministry.
The Union Budget is likely to be presented on February 1, 2023, by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, as it has been done for the past few years.
It will be the fifth budget of the Modi 2.0 government and Sitharaman and the last full budget before the general elections slated in April-May 2024.
During the election year, the government presents a Vote on Account for a limited period. Usually, the budget is cleared till July.
According to the notification, the pre-budget meetings as well as meetings for discussing revised estimates will begin from October 10, 2022, onwards.
Subsequently, financial advisors have been asked to ensure that all concerned details regarding the statement of budgetary estimates as well as demand for grants should be made available, as it would be required for all the pre-budget consultations, the circular said.
"Pre-budget meetings chaired by the secretary (Expenditure) shall commence on October 10, 2022," according to the Budget Circular (2023-24) of the Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs dated September 6, 2022. Financial advisers should ensure that the necessary details required in appendices I to VII are properly entered. Hard copies of the data along with specified formats should be submitted for cross-," the circular noted.
Finance secretaries of all union territories have also been asked to prepare in advance, a statement indicating the break-up of all scheme outlays and these should be made available to the Union Home Ministry.
The Budget Estimates for 2023-24 will be provisionally finalised after completion of pre-budget meetings, it said, adding, RE (Revised Estimate) meetings continue till around mid-November, 2022.
"All the ministries/departments should submit details of autonomous bodies/ implementing agencies, for which a dedicated corpus fund has been created. The reasons for their continuance and requirement of grant-in-aid support, and why the same should not be wound up, should be explained," it said.
The Budget for the current fiscal had projected a growth rate of about 7-7.5% in real terms while the fiscal deficit was pegged at 6.4% of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government scrapped a colonial-era tradition of presenting the Budget at the end of February. The then finance minister Arun Jaitley had for the first time presented the annual accounts on February 1, 2017.
With the preponement of the Budget, ministries are now allocated their budgeted funds from the start of the financial year beginning in April. This gives government departments more leeway to spend as well as allows companies time to adapt to business and taxation plans.
Previously, when the Budget was presented at the end of February, the three-stage Parliament approval process used to get completed some time in mid-May, weeks ahead of the onset of monsoon rains.
This meant government departments would start spending on projects only from August-end or September after the monsoon season ended.
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