Budget pushes urban sector reforms, but lacks plans for implementation: Experts
Hindustan TimesAppreciating the announcements made by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday in her seventh budget speech for the urban sector, policy and governance experts emphasised the need for specific frameworks, funding mechanisms, and timelines for the same. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech on Tuesday announced that the Centre would urge states to moderate stamp duties, especially in cities where stamp duties are currently steep. On budgetary allocations, Srikanth Vishwanathan, CEO of Janaagraha, a non-profit trust working on city systems, said at 1.7% of the total Union Budget in 2024-25, urban sector allocations are still not substantial while noting that the Union government has increased allocations for the urban sector by over 400% during the past decade, which is creditable. “The Union government would, therefore, have done well to focus on catalytic spends such as a national municipal infrastructure pipeline, an inventory of public land in cities and market valuation of the same, a national mission for city roads, and municipal capability centres to build shared institutional capacities in cities,” he said.
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Budget 2024: Focus on digitisation of land records, Urban development gets a leg up
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