Budget highlights: Super rich to be taxed more, fuel tax increases

PM Narendra Modi hailed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's maiden Budget as a 10-year vision. Here are the key takeaways of Budget 2019

9:50 PM

9:48 PM

Sitharaman picks fiscal discipline over calls for stimulus to economy

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman resisted calls for a fiscal boost to spur a weakening economy, sticking instead to a plan to narrow the budget deficit over time by keeping spending in check.

 

The fiscal deficit target for the year that began on April 1 was lowered to 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product from 3.4 per cent set in February’s interim plan. Read more

9:46 PM

Budget 2019 opinion: An incomplete agenda

While the changes in the Budget in the rates of duty of customs have been for good reasons, except for duties on newsprint and books, general reform of the tariff has not been done.

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9:44 PM

Budget to boost investment in renewable energy sector

Cheering the government's proposal to set up mega manufacturing plants for solar cells, batteries and solar charging infrastructure, industry experts said the move will give a boost to the sunrise industry and Make in India programme.

 

The industry experts, however, noted that such initiatives would require larger support structure in the form of soft loans, export credits in order to compete globally.
 

9:18 PM

Union Budget lacked vision, vital issues ignored: Amarinder Singh

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh Friday said the Union Budget "lacked vision" and had nothing to offer to any section of society.

 

He said it ignored a critical sector like defence and no allocation was made for the 550th birth anniversary celebrations of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev.

9:09 PM

'Ayushman Bharat' gets big boost in Budget

The Modi government has hiked the spending on health by around 18 per cent with allocation for the flagship 'Ayushman Bharat' scheme, said to be one of the major reasons for people re-electing the NDA, jumping from Rs 2,400 crore to Rs 6,400 crore.

9:07 PM

Marginal hike in budgetary allocation for Department of Space

The Department of Space has seen a marginal hike in the budgetary allocation from Rs 11,200 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 12,473 crore in 2019-20.

 

However, the head under space technology has seen a hike of nearly Rs 1,400 crore. In 2018-19, Rs 6,992 crore was allocated under this head. It rose to Rs 8,407 crore in 2019-20.

 

9:03 PM

Congress leader Anand Sharma slams Budget 2019

9:00 PM

Govt expects windfall from RBI as dividends

The central government expects to get a massive fund influx from the Reserve Bank of India as dividends in 2019-20.

 

Accordingly, senior government official have said that around Rs 90,000 crore is expected to come from the apex bank in this fiscal.

8:58 PM

Budget earmarks Rs 4,500 cr for Aviation Ministry in 2019-20

The Aviation Ministry has been allocated Rs 4,500 crore in the Budget for the current financial year, which is 115 per cent less than Rs 9,700 crore that was given to it during 2018-19 fiscal.

 

Centre has allocated Rs 480 crore for regional connectivity scheme UDAN. In 2018-19, the UDAN scheme was given Rs 441 crore.

 

8:56 PM

Baghel dubs Budget 2019 disappointing

The ruling Congress in Chhattisgarh termed the Union Budget as "disappointing".

 

Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel said, "This budget is very disappointing. It has failed to provide any relief to the middle class, farmers, youth, women and minorities." 

 

8:36 PM

Budget 2019 serves the larger interest of all sectors of the economy: Former finance minister Arun Jaitley

8:33 PM

Budget 2019: Rs 400 cr allocated for boosting higher education

An amount of Rs 400 crore for building world class institutions in the country was sanctioned in the Union budget.

 

The amount, provided under the head "World Class Institutions", is more than three times the revised estimates for the previous year.

8:31 PM

PAN-Aadhaar interchangeability: What experts say

Nitin Baijal, Director, Deloitte India said that the Budget was an effort at laying down a clear roadmap for tax administration over the next five years with introduction of a slew of measures specifically aimed at simplifying the tax filing process, e-assessment process and interchangeability of PAN with Aadhaar.

 

Neel Ratan, Partner and Leader- Government and Public Sector, PwC India said that the move was perhaps the first step to abolish PAN altogether for individuals.

 

"This also paves the way for better tax compliance with a single identifier and data driven governance," Ratan noted.

8:26 PM

FY20 GST collection estimate down 13% to Rs 6.63 trillion

FM Sitharaman has substantially lowered her projections for GST collections in the Budget for 2019-20 (FY20), against the interim Budget Piyush Goyal presented in February.

 

In a span of five months, the GST mop-up for FY20 has been reduced by around 13 per cent to Rs 6.63 trillion in Sitharaman’s Budget, against Rs 7.6 trillion estimated by Goyal.