The main responsibility for producing the Budget rests with the Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has been pursuing hawkish monetary policy stance to keep inflation under check.
Clarity on the roadmap necessary to assess its likely impact on near-term fiscal health and investment.
Though the Railways is yet to declare any five-year action plan, it is clear the government is not in a position to hand-hold it for any major expansion or upgrade. The issue, however, is how far the Railways can function within the PPP format. Recent history highlights some of the challenges.
LHB coaches are safer. Two high-level railway safety commissions came down heavily on ICF coaches, recommending their replacement by LHB, says Bibek Debroy.
In an otherwise agriculture- and public health-focused Union Budget 2018-19, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain technology, internet of things -- jargons that found little or no mention in the previous Budgets -- managed to make their presence felt.
The move would help insurance firms to get much needed capital from overseas partners.
Two premium new long-distance trains and plan to convert a strategically important metre gauge line into broad gauge were announced on Wednesday for the Northeastern region in the Railway Budget, but opposition BJP and AGP dubbed the sops as "frustrating".
To resolve the so-called 'angel tax' issue, the start-ups and their investors who file requisite declarations and provide information in their returns will not be subjected to any kind of scrutiny in respect of valuations of share premiums, she said.
Rural populations will get will get employment in the industrial corridors following amendments to the land acquisition bill.
At present, workers whose basic wage at the time of joining is up to Rs 6,500 per month.
24% claim exemption from income tax or say they have no income at all, discovers Manoj K.
MUDRA Bank will have a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore.
India needs to become globally competitive from infrastructure to taxation.
Cess upto 2 per cent will be levied
The deduction is in case of senior citizen is Rs 60,000.
Govt to introduce comprehensive law on black money
The government should have mentioned clearly the specific structural reforms that were responsible for the deviation from the fiscal deficit target by half a percentage point, says A K Bhattacharya.
'While all would agree on the need to be ready to launch cross-border strikes on terror camps, there is sharp disagreement on how best to do it.' 'Through IAF fighters, or surface-to-surface missiles?' 'Or should army Special Forces be created to do the job?' 'If air strikes are the agreed priority, additional funding must be made available for the purchase of fighters and missiles.' 'If it is to be Special Forces, the army must be facilitated in raising a Special Forces Command,' notes Ajai Shukla.
'If you do quick back-of-the-envelope calculation, someone earning Rs 10 lakh can get a benefit of anywhere between Rs 35,000 and Rs 45,000, even if s/he is availing exemptions.' 'A large proportion of people do not avail full exemptions as they don't have money to invest in those schemes.'
Prabhu proposed an unprecedented 50% hike in investment.
The new system is expected to give emphasis on various in-built credit enhancement structures.
Levying buyback tax at a flat rate of 20 per cent (plus applicable surcharge and cess), irrespective of the period for which shares are held will be a dampener for equity shareholders who take inherent risks while investing, says Hitesh D Gajaria, partner and head of tax, KPMG in India.
In view of popular demand, the government will on Tuesday relaunch saving instrument Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP), wherein the invested money will get doubled in 8 years and 4 months.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the government is planning to bring down its stake in public sector banks to 52 per cent so as to meet Rs 3 lakh crore capital requirement.
While Rs 37,461.01 crore has been allocated for higher education, Rs 56,386.63 crore has been earmarked for school education.
The I-T Department had identified 1.8 million taxpayers in its Operation Clean through data mining and asked them to submit responses about the source of their deposits.
The government is also working on Euroclearing, the world's biggest bond settlement system, for Indian debt securities.
ISRO needs next generation launchers and new facilities to manufacture and launch them.
Pawan Hans, Dredging Corp on list to meet target of Rs 800 bn for 2018-19
While the gold policy covers every aspect, from sourcing gold to trading and investing in it, experts assert that the policy is incomplete if mining of gold in India isn't promoted.
The corridor is expected to attract around Rs 1,250 billion investment and create 4,00,000 jobs. It will start from Mysore, pass through Bengaluru in Karnataka, to connect with Chennai, Coimbatore, Salem and Tiruchy in Tamil Nadu.
This move will enable it to incur higher-than-mandated borrowing, and possibly spending, till the 2024 Lok Sabha election cycle.
Defence experts want defence expenditure to be at 3% of GDP, which they consider minimum to counter the two-front threat from China and Pakistan, internal insurgencies, and dominating a 7,500 km coastline and the Indian Ocean beyond. What Arun Jaitley has given India this Budget is 2.16% of GDP, observes Ajai Shukla.
Under the scheme coming into effect from April 1, 2018, a donor could purchase bonds from authorised banks against cheques or digital payments. These would be redeemed only in the designated account of a registered political party.
Nearly 100 foreign funds have been asked to cough up an estimated $5-6 bn.
Investments in Sukanya Samriddhi Account will earn higher interest rate of 9.2%.
At present, 58 per cent of the population has bank account.
Sebi has approved the norms for financial institutions setting up shop at GIF City in Ahmedabad.
'No Budget has so far has addressed the issue of the government's abysmal productivity of capital spending, improving which will be the big game changer. 'But, the government's tight lock on businesses, banks, education, and even essential services like transportation and large parts of infrastructure and healthcare is destroying capital year after year,' points out Debashis Basu.
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