SRINAGAR: According to a revised list of business issued by the Lok Sabha secretariat, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the interim budget for 2024-25 for Jammu and Kashmir in Parliament on Monday.
This would be the fifth consecutive budget of Jammu and Kashmir to be presented in Parliament after the imposition of Central rule as JK Assembly is currently not in place.
Jammu and Kashmir has been without an elected government since June 19, 2018, when the BJP withdrew support from the Mehbooba Mufti-led government, citing a “deteriorating” security situation in the erstwhile state. Following the collapse of the PDP-BJP government, the budget for 2019-20 was approved by the then JK Governor as the head of the State Administrative Council. After the downgrading of JK to a Union Territory in 2019, all its budgets were presented in Parliament.
According to the list of businesses, Nirmala Sitharaman would present a statement of estimated receipts and expenditures of Jammu and Kashmir for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
The Finance Minister would also present a statement showing the supplementary demands of grants for Jammu and Kashmir.
This would be the first time in the past five years that JK’s budget would be presented in February. All previous four budgets were presented in mid-March.
In the recent Union budget, JK was allocated Rs 37277.74 crore mainly to bridge the resource gap—(KNO)
