Budget 2018 LIVE: Will Arun Jaitley ease tax rates amid fiscal challenges?

The annual Union Budget 2018-2019 will be tabled by Arun Jaitley on Thursday. Follow Business Standard for LIVE updates

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the Budget for financial year 2018-19 on Thursday. In the last Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley left the income tax slabs unchanged but gave a marginal relief to the small taxpayer, in the form of reduction in the rate from 10 per cent to 5 per cent for individuals having an annual income between Rs 250,000 to Rs 500,000.

This year too, taxpayers are waiting anxiously to know whether the government will, in Budget 2018, tweak income tax slabs and rates to bring down the burden on individuals.

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Jaitley will tomorrow present the current NDA government's fifth and arguably his toughest Budget yet as he seeks to address agriculture distress, create jobs and boost growth while at the same time stick to fiscal prudence.

7:41 AM

Benchmark 10-year bond yields have fallen 135 bps and the NSE share index has surged 55 per cent since Modi took power in May 2014.

7:35 AM

In July 2017, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) had cited the opinion of the attorney general to the government and the CAG on this issue: “Sebi is not obliged to remit from its general fund to the public fund account under Article 266(2) of the Constitution of India. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to deviate from the legislative intent of Parliament as elucidated in Section 14 of Sebi Act, 1992.”

7:34 AM

The issue of retention of surplus funds was first highlighted in 2008 by the CAG.

7:33 AM

Sources said this time around, Sebi has not objected to the government’s proposal on transfer of funds.

7:31 AM

According to a 2017 report of the CAG, these regulatory bodies together hold surplus cash of Rs 60.6 billion as of March 2017.

7:26 AM

The Centre has been eyeing these resources, which would enable it to reduce the fiscal deficit.

7:26 AM

Capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), has agreed to transfer Rs 16.7 billion of its surplus funds to the government.

7:23 AM

Sources said the FM’s fifth and final Budget speech of the current term of the Narendra Modi government will be truly bilingual, with Jaitley speaking at length in Hindi to reach out to the Hindi heartland.

7:22 AM

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is likely to deliver significant portions of his Budget speech on Thursday, particularly those related to the farm sector, in Hindi.

7:19 AM

Cement production remained the biggest growth puller, rising by 19.6 per cent in December and building on the 18.4 per cent growth the month before.

7:18 AM

This was lower than the 5.3 per cent growth in the corresponding period of 2016-17.

7:18 AM

Data issued by the commerce and industry ministry showed the eight segments cumulatively grew four per cent in the first nine months (April to December) of this financial year.

7:16 AM

This dip in core sector growth rates have raised questions over a broad-based revival in industrial demand that seemed to have been heralded by the November figures.

7:14 AM

The country's output from eight core sectors rose four per cent in December, slowing from the much larger growth of 7.4 per cent in November

7:10 AM

Markets will be focused on how much India widens its fiscal deficit beyond the 3 per cent of gross domestic product projected for 2018/19.