Budget FY24 focuses on growth with inclusion: NITI CEO

PTI

New Delhi: NITI Aayog CEO Parameswaran Iyer on Friday described the Budget 2023-24 as ‘very comprehensive and balanced’ which will promote with inclusion.

He also observed that the Budget continues all the reforms and other social welfare programmes undertaken by the government over the past few years. Hre said the Budget has something for all, from the bottom, right up to industry to trade. This is a Budget which focuses on growth, with inclusion.

It’s very balanced, it carries on from all the reforms and other social welfare programmes which the government has undertaken over the past few years,” he told PTI in an interview. Iyer noted that the Budget focuses on infrastructure investment, social sector, and also on reaching out to the poor and marginalised section of society. According to Iyer, the huge focus on infrastructure and capex in the Budget will also incentivise states.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman raised the capital expenditure by 33 percent to Rs 10 lakh crore for infrastructure development and announced a lower fiscal deficit target of 5.9 percent for 2023-24, while retaining it at 6.4 percent for current financial year. Replying to a question on the Modi government’s Aspirational Block Programme (ABP), Iyer said ABP is under the Aspirational Districts Programme.

“The budget of ABP is being worked out but basically the idea is that state gover nments converge funds from the existing resources and focus on datadriven delivery and tight monitoring,” he said. The NITI Aayog CEO said that all states have agreed to implement ABP.

Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Aspirational Block Programme covering 500 blocks for saturation of essential government services across multiple domains, on the lines of a similar exercise aimed at developing 112 backward districts. Iyer said the Aayog is also working on the State Support Mission with state governments.

“We are helping state governments in developing their own institutions. Five or six of them have already done it under the State Support Mission,” he revealed. Sitharaman in her Budget speech had said the State Support Mission of NITI Aayog will be continued for three years for the collective efforts towards national priorities.