India has presented the budget for the financial year 2024-2025 on 23 July 2024. The size of the budget is 576 billion dollars which is 48.21 lakh crore rupees in Indian currency.
India presents the annual budget in February every year and its financial year starts on 1st April and ends on 31st March but this year due to elections in India the annual budget could not be presented in February.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has presented the budget for the seventh time and this is the first budget of the third term of the Modi government. It is also known as Union Budget 2024-2025.
There is a big difference between the budgets of Pakistan and India. There will be a difference between the world’s fifth largest economy and the 42nd largest economy. Let’s try to know this difference in detail.
The first difference is that while presenting the budget in India, the opposition did not tear the copies of the budget, whereas in Pakistan, tearing the budget copies is probably part of the duties of the opposition.
After the presentation of the budget in India, people from almost all sectors are happy because the budget must have some relief or good news for every Indian, while in Pakistan, almost every section is protesting on the streets after the budget is presented.
In India, the budget has given relief to every private sector, common man, especially the middle class, while in Pakistan, the budget has given relief to every retired, serving government employee, every retired, serving military employee and every politician.
Indian budget is the budget of common people and Pakistani budget is the budget of government employees, army and politicians.
The largest segment of any country is the salaried segment. Giving it relief means that a large number of people got relief. Great relief has been given to the working class in India.
The tax deduction limit has been increased from 50 thousand to 75 thousand. This will cause a loss of about 37 thousand crore rupees to the Indian government, but the government considered it more important to bow down to the demand of the people.
According to an estimate, a salaried employee will save up to INR 17,500 in income tax under the new tax system. Tax has been reduced to zero in the income of three lakh rupees. Earlier this limit was 2.5 lakh rupees.
The salaried class has been demanding tax relief for many years which has been met whereas in Pakistan more taxes have been imposed instead of giving tax relief to the salaried class.
The tax rate on Pakistanis earning Rs 6 lakh to Rs 12 lakh per annum has been increased from 2.5% to 5%. This increase amounts to 100 percent.
About 65% of people in India are below 35 years of age. This budget seems to focus on them. In India, the salaried class is happy with the government and seems to be thankful to the government, while in Pakistan, the salaried class is forced to protest against the government on the streets due to increasing taxes.
The Indian government has budgeted 24 billion dollars to create new jobs in the next five years, while no such plan is under consideration in Pakistan.
The defense budget has always been a topic of debate in Pakistan and India. The importance of the defense budget increases in countries whose borders are often tense.
In the budget of the financial year 2024-2025, the Indian government has set a defense budget of 621 thousand 940 million rupees. Last year the defense budget was kept at around Rs.6 lakh crore.
A large part of the budget of Pakistan and India has been spent on defense. Pakistan has allocated two thousand 122 billion rupees for defense in the fiscal year 2024-25 budget, which is about 17% more than the previous year.
India’s defense budget is 12.9% of the total budget while Pakistan’s defense budget is about 11.23% of the total budget.
Almost all the borders of India are subject to disputes. In such a situation, the defense budget increases.
If the tension on the border of Pakistan and India is reduced, the situation on China and other borders may also improve.
The defense budget of India and Pakistan can be spent on education, development and health.
If we talk about the education budget, India has allocated Rs 1.48 lakh crore for education and training which is an increase of 6.8% compared to the previous year. A loan of up to Rs 10 lakh will also be given for higher education.
Apart from this, one crore people will be given internship in 500 major companies of the country. A plan to make 2 million youth skilled and trained in the next five years has also been presented.
Pakistan has also increased the federal budget for education this year. The ratio of education to GDP was 1.5 percent in FY 2023, which has been increased to 1.9 percent this year.
The federal budget for education in Pakistan is about 103 billion rupees. If the provinces are also combined, it becomes 1622 billion rupees.
India’s ratio of education to GDP is about three percent. Even with the total budget, the ratio is around three percent, while the international standard is four percent. Both Pakistan and India do not meet this criteria.
Both countries need to work in this sector, but perhaps Pakistan needs more.
India’s health budget has also been increased. A budget of 90 thousand 658 crores has been presented, which is 12.59% more than the previous financial year. This is less than two percent of the total budget.
The federal health budget in Pakistan is about 27 billion Pakistani rupees, which is more than 14 percent of the total budget. As health in Pakistan is a provincial matter, if the budgets of all the provinces are included, it becomes about 1195 billion rupees.
Health card facility in Pakistan is better than India.
Workers work at a hosiery factory in Calcutta, India on February 1, 2021 (AFP)
This section contains related reference points (Related Nodes field).
In the budget 2024-25, the inflation rate in Pakistan is targeted at 12 percent, while India has set an inflation target of 4 percent in the fiscal year 2024-25 budget.
At the time the budget is being presented, the inflation rate in India is 5.08% while in Pakistan, the inflation rate was 12.6% when the budget was presented.
Inflation in India has been reduced due to low interest rates and increased reliance on local goods rather than imports. Pakistan also needs to increase production at the local level.
India has pegged the fiscal deficit at 4.9 percent of GDP, down from a deficit of 5.1 percent projected in February. The fiscal deficit target has been set at 4.6 percent in fiscal year 2026.
The budget deficit in Pakistan is pegged at around 5.9%. The budget deficit target does not seem to have much difference but it remains to be seen whether this target can be achieved or not.
The Modi government has reduced the tax rate on foreign companies from 40 percent to 35 percent to promote foreign investment, while companies investing in Pakistan are facing difficulties in taking their profits out of the country.
Foreign investment in Pakistan is at a 50-year low and the Budget 2024-25 has no clear policy to increase it.
In India, the capital gains tax exemption limit has been increased to Rs 2 lakh per annum to provide relief to the middle and low income groups. In the Union budget, the capital gain tax has been increased only on securities, while in Pakistan, the capital gain tax has been imposed on all special and general which goes from 15% to 45%.
In order to improve the textile sector, India has either reduced or eliminated customs duty on several items in the new budget to further improve exports, which has led to a rise in the share prices of the textile sector.
In Pakistan, taxes up to 35% have been imposed on all exporters, including textiles. How can the Pakistani textile industry compete with the Indian textile industry in these circumstances?
In the Union Budget, Rs 1.52 lakh crore has been earmarked for agriculture, which is more than three percent of the total budget. Taxation on agriculture in Pakistan is the responsibility of the provinces.
According to the Indian budget, up to 300 units of electricity will be provided free of cost to one crore households. Whereas in Pakistan, the electricity bill of a person who consumes 300 units of electricity comes to about 30 thousand rupees.
There was a time when the economies of India and Pakistan used to compete to see who was better, but the pace at which India has grown over the past few years, Pakistan has probably out-competed India.
India has become the fifth largest economy in the world and Pakistan is number 42.
How can the world’s fifth largest economy compete with the 42nd economy?
The GDP of only Maharashtra in India is higher than the GDP of the whole of Pakistan.
Maharashtra’s GDP is $415 billion and Pakistan’s GDP is $373 billion.
According to the IMF, India will become the third largest economy in the world by 2027. Currently, Japan is at the third and Germany at the fourth position, which means that India will be the largest economy after the United States and China.
India’s budget is made with the idea of becoming a third economic power whereas Pakistan’s budget is made with the idea of borrowing from the IMF, so it would be better to say that India’s budget is better than Pakistan’s budget.
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2024-07-25 04:34:15
