Budget 2019 LIVE: Copies of Budget brought to Parliament complex
New Delhi, Feb 1: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal will on 1 February present Narendra Modi government's sixth and final Budget, which will be an interim one, keeping up with established tradition. This will be the last Budget of the BJP-led NDA government ahead of the General Election.
The Budget will seek Parliament's nod for spending for four months till a new government is sworn-in. What will the Modi sarkar announce today?
Stay tuned for all the updates LIVE
Piyush Goyal will present interim Budget 2019-20 in the Parliament at 11am today
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Finance Minister Piyush Goyal leaves North Block and he is heading for Parliament now
Copies of Budget 2019 brought to Parliament complex in green bags
Union Cabinet to meet ahead of the Budget 2019 presentation in the Parliament today
Delhi: Piyush Goyal arrives at the Ministry of Finance. He will present interim Budget 2019-20 in the Parliament today. #Budget2019 pic.twitter.com/fHQMwkSXc1
— ANI (@ANI) 1 February 2019
Piyush Goyal arrives at the Ministry of Finance. He will present interim Budget 2019-20 in the Parliament today
FM Piyush Goyal will present Interim Budget amidst a lot of hopes
Last year, Narendra Modi-led government scrapped a colonial-era tradition of presenting the Budget at the end of February and it is now presented on February 1, so as to allow Parliamentary approvals to be completed before the start of the next financial year
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is expected to try and shore up its political support with big ticket farm giveaways and tax cuts for the middle class in its Union budget today, months before elections.
The Prime Minister at an all party meet on Thursday assured the opposition that an interim budget would be presented. This was conveyed by leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad.
The PM was urged not to pass any controversial bills during this session. He was told that only bills on which there is unanimity should be passed.
While it is widely expected that Income tax concessions for individuals, a farm relief package, support for small businesses and possible populist spending measures may be part of the Budget, there will be no Economic Survey detailing the state of the economy.
The session is expected to be stormy with the government planning some big-ticket announcements in the Interim Budget to be presented by interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal besides pushing the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha after it was passed by the Lok Sabha in the last session.
The NDA government assumed office in May 2014 and presented a Budget for financial year 2014-15 followed by Budgets for financial years 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19. It can't present a sixth full Budget because financial year 2019-20 would commence on April 1, 2019, and continue till March 31, 2020, whereas the tenure of the government would end on May 26, 2019
Here's what to expect from 2019-20 Interim Budget:
Agriculture
- Farm relief package itself could run to at least Rs. 1 lakh crore ($14.04 billion)
- Set to earmark about Rs. 1.8 lakh crore for food subsidies in the fiscal year
- Expected to waive premium for taking insurance policy for food crops
- Proposal for waiving interest on crop loans for farmers who pay on time
Divestment
- Target of about $11 billion from state asset sales in FY 2019-20
- Potential stake sales via IPOs include Telecommunications Consultants India, Indian Railways' subsidiaries IRCTC, RailTel Corp India and National Seeds Corp
- Metals
- Gold - Speculation around a duty cut
- Health
- Budget allocation for health is likely to increase by 5 per cent from a year ago
- Taxes
- An anticipated corporate tax rate cut to 25 per cent from 30 per cent may be put on hold until after the elections
- Higher tax exemptions for the middle class and for small businesses anticipated
- Banks
- Discount of 2 percentage points on loans for businesses with annual sales of less than Rs. 5 crore; government to compensate banks for the costs
- Rs. 4,000 crore-rupee capital infusion for public-sector general insurers
Autos
- Reduction of goods and services tax (GST) on electric vehicles and batteries
IT/Telecom
- Better digital infrastructure in rural areas
- Abolition of the angel tax to boost start-ups
- Exemption from GST for spectrum and licence fee payouts, reduction in spectrum fees and cuts in import duty on telecom equipment (currently at 20 per cent)