With finance minister Piyush Goyal doublin g the income tax exemption limit and reaching out to farmers in his interim Budget 2019, the Sensex held on to the gains it had made early in the morning and was trading more than 350 points higher, while Nifty was trading around 10,950.

In his budget speech, Goyal said the fiscal deficit for the current financial year is expected to be 3.4 per cent of GDP. The fiscal deficit for the financial year 2018-19 was pegged at 3.3 per cent.

In a huge relief to salaried tax payers, Piyush Goyal raised the tax exemption limit from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

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As per the Budget estimate, the fiscal deficit for 2018-19 was pegged at 3.3 per cent.

During his speech, the finance minister reached out to the farmers with the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi for small and marginal farmers and providing Rs 6,000 per year for the farmers. This Rs 6,000 will be transferred directly into the farmers’ bank accounts.

For detailed budget coverage, click here: https://www.livemint.com/

First Published: Feb 01, 2019 12:35 IST