Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented the Interim Budget for 2014-15 on Monday.
The President's address to Parliament on January 31 will contain the government's report card on the state of the economy, and will be no less important than the interim Budget announcements, says A K Bhattacharya.
The 66-year-old finance minister underwent a successful kidney transplant surgery in mid-May and was on leave since April due to kidney-related problems and chest infection.
She posed for the traditional 'briefcase' picture outside her office along with her team of officials before heading to meet the President. She, however, was holding a tablet instead of a briefcase to present the Budget in a digital format.
The five-time prime minister was re-appointed to the job on May 12 following the political circus precipitated by the unprecedented economic crisis in the island's history.
To help compare numbers better, FinMin might retain the interim Budget Estimates with the new ones.
Budget-makers in North Block are looking to maintain this fiscal status quo, in spite of tax revenues nowhere close to where the government wants and in spite of possible higher expenditure commitments.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday used her trademark 'bahi-khata', a ledger wrapped in a red-coloured cloth, to carry Budget documents as she arrived in Parliament House to present her third straight Budget. Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman finance minister, had in July 2019 ditched the colonial legacy of a Budget briefcase for the traditional 'bahi-khata' to carry Union Budget papers. She used the same last year and again on Monday.
Evidently, households see a brighter future after the Budget, reveals Mahesh Vyas.
Strategic divestment of select public sector undertakings will remain a priority area, she said.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Wednesday thanked India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi for giving Sri Lanka 'a breath of life' by providing timely economic assistance to his country as it faced the worst economic crisis in decades.
Nirmala Sitharaman has designed the revenue mix in such a way that while Centre's share in taxes would grow a massive 25 per cent, states' share would grow a dismal 6 per cent.
From referencing "josh" of Bollywood flick 'Uri', to chants of "Modi, Modi" from the Bharatiya Janata Party, there were varied reactions in Lok Sabha as Finance Minister Piyush Goyal gave his interim budget speech on Friday.
Goyal is expected to discuss the targets for the banks for 2019-20, as well as priority sector lending, recovery on non-performing assets, and the bankruptcy proceedings of various companies, which owe money to the banks.
Shortly after the Union Budget was announced, political leaders from across the spectrum reacted to it. Here's what some of our leaders said.
The highest collection target has been given to Mumbai at Rs 4.39 trillion, followed by Delhi and Bengaluru.
The decision, likely to benefit around three million defence pensioners, will come into effect from 2014-2015.
The Rajya Sabha is slated for a 12-hour discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the President's address to the joint session of the two Houses of Parliament, which also includes the reply by the prime minister, which is likely next Tuesday.
Inflation in food articles category in January stood at 8.8 per cent.
Faced with revenue shortfall, Railway Minister Mallikarjun Kharge is likely to refrain from announcing many populist measures in the interim budget on February 12.
The significant gainers in the interim sports budget are SAI, the National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) and the corpus meant for giving incentives to sportspersons
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday raised the personal income tax rebate limit, doled out sops on small savings and announced one of the biggest hikes in capital spending in the past decade as she did a tight rope walk in the Budget between staying fiscally prudent and meeting public expectations in the year before general elections.
Relief on tax surcharge also likely to be extended to the corporate sector; duty on gold expected to be slashed.
Sheela Bhatt recounts the tension, suspense and disruptions during P Chidambaram's interim budget in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was the first and only women till now to have presented the Union Budget.
Watch all the the debates and proceedings.
Several questions arise on the appropriateness of the measure in the already strained fiscal scenario, says M Govinda Rao.
The government has budgeted to cut the fiscal deficit to 3.3 per cent of GDP or Rs 6.24 lakh crore in 2018-19, from 3.53 per cent in the previous financial year.
The moves on basic income for farmers - Rs 6,000 per person in three installments per annum - and subsidised agricultural loans are likely to boost the rural economy through consumption in the near-term, but will have a fiscal cost, it noted.
Presenting the Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal also said Rs 35,000 crore has been given under the One Rank One Pension scheme in the last three years.
The decision to scrap the plan for landless workers and focus only on small and marginal farmers was made as there was no proper method to find out who qualify as landless labourers.
Some members held placards of news reports about unemployment figures.
In the current year, India's economy will grow to become $ 3 trillion economy, sixth largest in world.
Goyal said India has been recognised as the brightest spot in the world in the past 5 years.
So how do you rate the NDA government's election-year budget? Does it meet your expectations? Or do you feel let down?
Families with tax-paying members, government employees, professionals, among those who have been exempted from the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme.
Concerned by GDP slowdown and unrealistic tax targets, the economists urged Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to implement long-term structural steps like land and labour reforms. Warning against any off-Budget financing the economists said the government should prepare a statement of intent for its social, rural and welfare sector expenditure.
FinMin does not expect tax or non-tax revenue to reach anywhere close to the targets set in the interim Budget. Sources say that the challenge before the new government will be either to accept the reduced projection and tailor the Budget accordingly or set a more ambitious target.
Tax expert Anil Rego answers readers' questions about how Finance Minister Piyush Goyal's Budget affects you.
India, desperate to trim a gaping current account deficit, took a slew of measures last year to curb demand for bullion
