A cut in government spending would come at the cost of growth.
The Budget emphasises on capacity building and empowerment of marginalised sections of society including farmers.
Refraining from tinkering with tax and duty rates in the interim Budget, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday made a huge allocation of Rs 30,100 crore (Rs 301 billion) to government's flagship rural employment programme and many other schemes in a bid to counter the economic recession.
It was 55.3 per cent for the same period last year, and data shows the fiscal deficit for April-May was kept in reasonable check in spite of heavy frontloading of expenditure.
The states will forego around Rs 44,000 crore of tax revenue after they reduced VAT on petrol and diesel in the reminder of the fiscal but higher central tax devolution of Rs 60,000 crore will offset the losses, according to a report. After months of calls for lowering the taxes on the fuels, the Centre on November 4 cut excise duty on diesel by Rs 10 a litre and by Rs 5 on petrol. Following this, as many as 25 states and Union territories have lowered value-added tax (VAT) on these fuels.
The 30-share Sensex ended up 219 points at 18,620 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 63 points at 5,472.
The main gainers on the Sensex were Bajaj Auto, TCS, Cipla, HDFC, HDFC Bank.
India's fiscal deficit reached 4.11 trillion rupees ($61.67 billion) during April-October or 74 per cent of the full-year target, government data showed on Monday.
In the last budget, then finance minister Arun Jaitley had allocated Rs 85,010 crore for the education sector which was later revised to Rs 83,625.86 crore.
Ramoji Rao lived as the interface between business and politics and was an active participant in both for most of his remarkable life.
Even with the possible expenditure roll-overs and off-budget financing, the fiscal deficit target will not be met. The FRBM Act, after its amendment in 2018, allows a fiscal deficit slippage of not more than 0.5 per cent for any given year, provided there are justifications. These justifications include war, national security, severe collapse in the agriculture sector, a major natural calamity, big structural economic reforms, or the decline in real output growth of a quarter by at least 3 percentage points below its average of the previous four quarters.
The main responsibility for producing the Budget rests with the Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry
First Rajya Sabha approved the Rs 45 lakh-crore spending proposed in the Budget, followed by the nod to the Finance Bill that contains tax proposals.
Strategic sales are tricky and were last undertaken when the Vajpayee government was in power.
The Budget decides to take the lead in revving up infrastructure.
The Indian Railways will earn a profit of Rs 951 crore (Rs 9.51 billion) in 2009-10, down 93 per cent from the 2007-08 level.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will keep on the path of fiscal consolidation and opt for narrowing the FY24 fiscal deficit to as low as 5.8 per cent in the upcoming Budget, analysts said on Tuesday. The government may go for a fiscal deficit number which will be far lower than the 6.4 per cent of GDP budgeted for FY23, they said, pegging the Budget figure for the next fiscal in the range of 5.8 - 6 per cent. Given the fact that this will be the last full Budget of the present government, there may be a temptation to make it into an expansionist one.
Business success often involves a combination of planning, implementation, and continuous learning, says rediffGURU Harsh Bharwani.
There are doubts about the meeting of indirect tax collection target for the current fiscal as there is slowdown in the economy.
Govt looks at more taxes, dividends to meet deficit target.
'In equities, it has diversified portfolios.' 'So the short-term movement of individual stocks does not impact them.'
This is slightly better than the fiscal deficit position last year when it was 85.6 per cent of the Budget target.
India's gross tax collections soared to a record high of Rs 27.07 lakh crore in the fiscal year ended March 31, led by impressive growth in corporate tax and customs, taking the tax-to-GDP ratio to an over two-decade high of 11.7 per cent, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said on Friday.
The Budget process is a massive exercise. The exercise has different stages and each stage kicks off at a different stage of Budget making process.
Against a turbulent and uncertain background, Budget 2017-18 hewed a steady, forward-looking course, says Shankar Acharya, former chief economic adviser to the government.
The Indian Constitution requires the government to present to Parliament a statement that shows separately the expected revenues and expenditures, both current and capital by heads of account.
Hindustan Unilever's Q3FY24 performance was lacklustre, with both sales and operating profit barely moving from the year-ago period due to price cuts and higher advertising costs. Besides weak demand, the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) major is facing increased competitive pressures, particularly from regional players, which, coupled with a slow recovery in rural markets, could put revenues under pressure going forward. Margins are expected to remain range-bound as benefits from falling raw material costs are expected to be neutralised by rising promotional budgets.
'Inter-ministerial coordination, information on the proposed PSUs, and due diligence are taking longer than expected to conclude the process.'
Actor Poonam Pandey is not being considered as the brand ambassador of the government's national campaign to spread awareness on cervical cancer, Union health ministry officials said on Wednesday.
On the revenue front, the finance ministry was expecting higher proceeds from non-tax revenue.
Most families had high value currency notes and they used it for making payments during the pre-demonetisation era.
Measures that quickly boost demand and increase employment are needed to push up growth. Moreover, without announcing new planss, the government should strengthen schemes such as PM KISAN, MNREGA and programmes to build rural roads.
After the RBI surprised the Centre with a record Rs 99,122 crore in surplus transfer for FY21, analysts said this will help the government tide over the revenue losses from lockdowns and extend more support to the pandemic hit industries and to the poor people. In fiscal 2020, the RBI had paid only Rs 57,128 crore in dividend to the government and the finance minister had budgeted only Rs 45,000 crore from the central bank. The higher payout followed the Bimal Jalan panel report that had set a new economic framework capital buffer for the central bank along with the contingency risk buffer at 5.5 per cent.
While the session will begin with the President's address to the joint sitting of the two Houses, the same day the pre-budget economic survey will be tabled.
Only 80.6 per cent of the Rs 6-trillion allocation has been spent by February, data from the Controller General of Accounts shows.
Leaving behind apprehensions of a rise in interest rates and petro duty cut impacting budget numbers, the officials are now confident of keeping the fiscal deficit within the targeted 4.6 per cent of the gross domestic product.
The fiscal deficit, estimated at 4.6 per cent of the gross domestic product, is expected to be around 5.6 per cent, mainly on account of factors like subdued revenue collection, poor disinvestment receipts, high global commodity prices and increasing subsidy bill.
'Short term volatility is likely due to various factors, global and domestic; investors may use this as an opportunity to increase the allocation to equities.'
Finance Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday asked various ministries to try to spend more than their capital expenditure targets as well as explore public private partnerships for viable projects. During a meeting with senior government officials to discuss the infrastructure roadmap, she also urged the ministries and their CPSEs to ensure clearance of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) dues at the earliest. This was the fifth review meeting by the finance minister with ministries and departments on the infrastructure roadmap.
There is a link between objectives and commitments.
