'The private sector believes that some enablers in labour-intensive sectors like apparel, toys, tourism, and media retail, can unlock a lot of jobs.'
It had declined by slightly over 4 per cent in December. The city contributes 37 per cent to the total direct tax revenues. If the trend continues, it could affect the Budget estimates of Rs 13 trillion for the current fiscal year.
The two-wheeler segment has shown signs of recovery in the first half (H1) of calendar year (CY) 2024, largely driven by improving performance in rural areas. According to the Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations, rural contribution to two-wheeler sales surged by 57-60 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2024-25, indicating a rising demand in these regions. Experts believe that this trend will continue, supported by a favourable monsoon season and government initiatives aimed at rural development.
Direct tax collections fell Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) short of the Rs 3.87 trillion target last fiscal, largely owing to lower realisation from corporate tax payers.
In fact, no other recent Union Budget has held so much significance for the Indian economy as the one to be presented in about six weeks from now, notes A K Bhattacharya.
It is time to take a few macroeconomic risks to kick start the growth.
Chief executive officers (CEOs) across sectors have expressed intentions to expand capacities, expecting the government's target to invest a record Rs 11.11 trillion on infrastructure development will act as a catalyst for a jump in consumer demand. "With the government planning a capex of Rs 11.11 trillion, private sector investment will come in a big way. Companies will be preparing for it right from today," H M Bangur, chairman of Shree Cement, told Business Standard. For the past few years, the investment scene in India has been dominated by government capital expenditures; private investments in the manufacturing sector have remained muted.
A cut in government spending would come at the cost of growth.
Maharashtra is the BRS' first target.
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.
Per capita income in the state has consistently been below the national average for at least 24 years. However, it has narrowed the gap with the all-India level in recent years.
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.
A communiqu sent by the department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) to the heads of all PSUs, said the move would help the government to get predictable and periodic dividends before Budget estimates are firmed up.
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.
Public-sector enterprise stocks have seen a good run thus far in 2023-24 (FY24), with the S&P BSE PSU Index surging by over 26 per cent during the period, compared to an 11 per cent increase in the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex.
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.
Long-term capital gains tax may be scrapped and the burden of dividend distribution tax could perhaps be shifted from companies to shareholders. Also, the Budget could provide income tax relief for the salaried classes, while proposing tax sops for small, medium and micro enterprises.
Rates may be raised from 5 per cent to 8 per cent and 12 per cent to 15 per cent. The Council can explore possibility of merger of slabs to bring down the number of slabs to three. The Central GST collection fell short of the Budget Estimate by nearly 40 per cent during the April-November period of 2019-20
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.
Outlay for infra is also expected to see a significant increase in view of the government's Rs 111-trillion investment plan under the national infrastructure pipeline to develop social and economic infrastructure over five years.
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 Budget emphasises on capacity building and empowerment of marginalised sections of society including farmers.
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.
The main responsibility for producing the Budget rests with the Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry
After some enforced slowdown in offtake during April-May 2024 due to elections, the cement sector is looking at a possible demand rebound which may help it to push up prices. The April'24 offtake was muted while May'24 saw some improvement with a likely 5-6 per cent rise in demand month-on-month (MoM). In June, some price hikes seem to have been taken, which suggests more sustained improvement in demand.
By taking the mutual fund route, investors can take exposure to gilts with small amounts. Over a decade or more, returns from these funds tend to be sound.
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.
Tax devolution shares, which threaten to create a north-south divide among states, may have more to do with per capita income, and not so much with population.
They have also called for giving cash to the poor, so that demand is generated in the economy.
There are doubts about the meeting of indirect tax collection target for the current fiscal as there is slowdown in the economy.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said his party would oppose the Centre's move to bring a bill in Parliament to amend the 1995 law governing Waqf boards, and accused the BJP of trying to snatch the rights of Muslims.
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.
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.
Govt looks at more taxes, dividends to meet deficit target.
This is slightly better than the fiscal deficit position last year when it was 85.6 per cent of the Budget target.
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.
'This government has always been fiscally conservative. It never resorted to fiscal profligacy.'
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.
