How is the Budget Prepared?

The whole country is in a state of turmoil right now with Budget coming this week. People are eagerly waiting to see what does the Finance Minister has prepared for budget of the coming financial year. So let us try to understand, how is this budget prepared?

What is Budget?

First let us understand, what do we exactly mean by the word “Union Budget”.  The Union Budget is basically a statement of revenue and expenditure done by the Government for the year. The Budget outlines how much money the government aims to borrow next year and how will they plan to do the allocation among different sectors, departments and states. A lot of things need to be taken care of like how much capital will be required, how to maximise the  tax revenue, etc.

The whole process takes around 5-6 months. The Ministry of Finance consults the NITI Ayog along with various other stakeholders like states, union territories, defense forces, and departments in order to arrive at a single consensus in order to prepare the budget. They then write back in order to further elaborate their demands. In order to understand the views of different parties like farmers, businessmen, and social groups involved, a meeting is held with them.

The three most important figures are provided under the headings of revenue and expenditure: the actual amount spent in the last year, revised figures according to the current actual rate and budgeted figures for the upcoming year. After the consolidation of these figures, a budget is formed.

The Finance Minister presents the budget in the parliament with the permission of the President.

This year the people are having higher expectations with the budget than in usual as the currently India is facing a slowdown in the economy. The people expect that the budget will focus more on resolving this issue by boosting the two important factors: investment and consumption. Initiatives and policies should be undertaken in order to curb the rising unemployment rate in India.