What’s the difference between a full Budget and an interim Budget?

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What’s the difference between a full Budget and an interim Budget?

What is interim budget?

A vote on account or interim Budget, means that the government seeks the approval of Parliament for meeting expenditure for the first four months of the fiscal year (April-March) with no changes in the taxation structure. The estimates are presented for the entire year, as is the case with the regular Budget

When is an interim budget presented?

  • The government of the day presents an interim budget if it does not have the time to present a full Budget or because national elections may be near.
  • In the latter situation, propriety demands that the task of framing the full Budget be left to the incoming government.

What is difference between full budget and interim budget?

  • A full budget is the presentation of annual finances of the government, change in existing tax slabs, announcement of new schemes and sops for different sectors of the economy.
  • However, in case of an interim budget, change in tax slabs are not made and no new schemes are announced; only finance estimates are presented. In case of an election year, the incoming government has full freedom to change the estimates completely when the final Budget is presented.

Background

  • In 1948, erstwhile Finance Minister R K Shanmukham Chetty presented a vote on account and followed it up with Independent India’s first regular budget.
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