Parliament approves Finance and other appropriation bills after discussion

The Jammu and Kashmir Appropriation Bill, 2024 was also returned.

The Lok Sabha in its sitting on Wednesday approved the Finance Bill and other appropriation bills after discussion on them.

A total of 33 members of the Rajya Sabha participated in the discussion on the interim Budget.

Replying to the discussion, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the government's focus in the interim Budget is on capital expenditure (capex) for asset creation.

"We have committed to spend about 17% higher than RE of 2023-24. Our outlay is higher than the projected GDP growth rate of 10.5% during the next financial year (2024-25)," Sitharaman said.

She emphasised that capex is spent on creating assets, which can be used by all citizens equally, and their common infrastructure which improves the 'ease of living' for everybody.

The interim Budget has earmarked Rs 11.11 lakh crore capex for FY25. The allocation accounts for 3.4% of GDP.

The Finance Minister presented a 'white paper' on the economy in both Houses of Parliament to compare the performance of the 10 years of the Modi government and 10 years of the UPA government led by Manmohan Singh.

The white paper stated that double-digit inflation prevailed during the UPA government and the country's banking sector ailed. The other macroeconomic parameters also reflected the poor state of economy which dented India's image and shook investor confidence, it said.

The white paper claimed that the UPA government in its quest to maintain high economic growth severely undermined the macroeconomic foundations.

"One such foundation that was severely weakened by the UPA government was price stability. Inflation raged between 2009 and 2014 and the common man bore the brunt," it said.