 "Arun Jaitley holding his budget briefcase as he arrives in Parliament on budget day. Photo: Reuters")
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget of 2018 on Thursday. The government proposed to increase the target of providing free LPG connections to 80 million women living below the poverty line.
"Ujjawala Yojana target is being extended to eight crore women living below the poverty line. It was earlier at five crore. The women will receive a free gas connection," Jaitley said while presenting the Union Budget.
He also said that an Agri-Market Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 20 billion will be set up for developing agricultural markets in the country.
The focus is on low-cost farming, higher Minimum Support Price (MSP) and emphasis will primarily be on generating farm and non-farm employment for farmers, in the coming year.
Further, institutional credit for agriculture is proposed to be raised to Rs 11 trillion for 2018-19.
The government has also announced a Rs 100 billion allocation for fisheries, aquaculture and animal husbandry funds.
