Budget 2024: White paper on pre and post-2014 economy soon, says Nirmala Sitharaman

The government plans to soon unveil a white paper in Parliament, outlining the economic status before and after it assumed power in 2014, said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as she presented her sixth straight Budget on Thursday. During the presentation of the Budget in Lok Sabha on Thursday, Sitharaman emphasised the importance of analysing the pre-2014 economic management shortcomings and assessing the current economic landscape. “It is now appropriate to look at where we were then till 2014 and where we are now, only for the purpose of drawing lessons from the mismanagement of those years. The government will lay a white paper on table of the House,” Sitharaman said. When the BJP-led government assumed the reins in 2014, she said the responsibility to mend the economy step-by-step and to put the governance systems in order was enormous. “The need of the hour was to give hope to the people, to attract investments, and to build support for the much-needed reforms. The government did that successfully following our strong belief of ‘nation-first’," the finance minister said. She said that the crisis of those years has been overcome, and the economy has been put firmly on a high sustainable growth path with all-round development. India’s real GDP growth for FY25 is now projected at 7.3%. Sitharaman presented her sixth straight budget ahead of the Parliamentary elections, matching the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. In less than an hour-long budget speech, she presented the Modi government’s achievements in the last 10 years that transformed India from being a ‘fragile’ economy to the world’s fastest-growing major economy. With inputs from agencies