"The President was getting very tired by the end... she could hardly speak, poor thing," Sonia Gandhi, the former Congress chief, was heard saying in clips in what appeared to be a reference to how long the address was.
Combating inflation, protecting the common man from the impact of rising food prices and sustaining the momentum of economic growth while ensuring the poor get a fair share of the "fruits of growth" are among the government's "foremost priorities" in 2011-12, President Pratibha Patil said in her address to Parliament this week.
The government is planning to introduce legislative changes to the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema) regulations, with a focus on easing the pathway for inflows from a foreign portfolio investor to transition seamlessly into foreign direct investments (FDI) once the FPI surpasses the 10 per cent ownership threshold in a company. This move stems from multiple requests by foreign investors seeking to streamline the reporting requirements that arise when their stakes in Indian firms cross the 10 per cent mark.
As part of the ritual, ''halwa'' is prepared in a big ''kadhai'' (large frying pot) and served to the entire staff involved in the Budget making exercise of the ministry. Halwa was served while maintaining COVID protocol with all present in mask and those distributing sweets were wearing gloves.
'Going forward, the encouragement would be to move to the new tax regime.'
Nationalist Congress Party-Sharadchandra Pawar MLA Jitendra Awhad arrived in handcuffs at the Vidhan Bhavan complex in Mumbai on the first day of the Maharashtra legislature's budget session on Monday to highlight 'growing attack' on freedom of expression and protest the deportation of illegal immigrants from the United States.
As far as personal taxation goes, there were positive changes overall, even if the magnitude might not have been as high as expected. Here are 7 changes that you will be affected by:
'The Budget numbers presented severely underestimate the magnitude of the unstated fiscal crisis that we went through in 2018-2019, which cannot be conceivably be fully reversed in 2019-2020,' points out Rathin Roy, director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
The finance minister's Budget Speech has come as a surprising blessing as he has maintained the rates as they were last year.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may not raise I-T exemption limit to Rs 500,000.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley may not raise I-T exemption limit to Rs 500,000.
The decision in respect of allowing FDI in multi-brand retail trade up to 51 per cent subject to compliance with specified conditions. Also, The finance minister mentioned in budget speech that the efforts are on to arrive at broad based consensus in consultation with state Governments.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a quantum leap.
The government will come out with a White Paper on the mismanagement of economy prior to 2014 with an aim to draw lessons.
The upcoming Budget will have a record of funds spent on welfare of the minorities.
The main responsibility for producing the Budget rests with the Budget Division of the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack on Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday, accusing them of "speaking the language of urban naxals" and being "AAP-da" for the youth. He also took a swipe at former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, saying those who entertain themselves by getting photo sessions done in huts of the poor will find the talk about the poor in Parliament boring. Modi also hailed his government's decisions in the Budget and said that the Ayushman Bharat scheme, which his government started for the poor, has been stalled by some states, leaving poor people in hardship.
However, the finance minister did not oblige members in the Rajya Sabha with clarifications on his intervention in the debate on the issue of price rise, even when Communist Party of India-Marxist member Sitaram Yechury sought some more information.
The President's office has condemned comments made by Congress leaders regarding President Droupadi Murmu's address to Parliament, stating that they hurt the dignity of the high office. The statement clarified that the President was not tired during her speech and that the comments were in "poor taste" and "unacceptable." The Congress leaders had reportedly discussed the speech, with Sonia Gandhi commenting on the President's alleged tiredness. The statement suggested that the leaders may have misunderstood the President's speech due to their unfamiliarity with Indian languages.
As the row erupted in Parliament, the Congress said the Gandhi family's caste is martyrdom but the BJP-RSS will never understand that.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the country's economic growth is expected at 9.2 per cent in the current financial year, on the back of a sharp rebound in the economy. She also said virtuous cycle of investment is expected to revive on account of capex (capital expenditure) and crowd in private investment. "Government focus since 2014 is on poor and marginalised.
The loss in Bihar has forced a change in NDA's market positioning, says Shekhar Gupta.
The FM also proposed that the maximum deposit limit for Monthly Income Account Scheme will be enhanced from Rs 4.5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh for a single account and from Rs 9 lakh to Rs 15 lakh for a joint account.
India is considering allowing new private sector banks, including by industrial houses, and a roadmap for the same could be announced in the annual Union Budget to be presented later this month.
A heated debate erupted in the Rajya Sabha over the ongoing strike by ASHA workers in Kerala, with Congress and CPI(M) MPs trading accusations over responsibility for addressing their demands for a higher honorarium and post-retirement benefits. Congress MP Jebi Mather alleged that both the Kerala government and the Union government had ignored the workers' pleas, while CPI(M) MP John Brittas countered by claiming Kerala provides the highest honorarium to ASHA workers. The debate also saw demands for an AIIMS in Kerala and a hike in MBBS seats, as well as concerns over maternal health, elderly care, and mental health in India.
Employment generation in the midst of a global meltdown will be the central idea of the Interim Budget that the United Progressive Alliance will present on February 16, just ahead of the general elections.
'There is a vision in the Budget, and the vision is to take India from a largely agrarian, rural economy into a fast-track digitalised economy.'
Accusing the Centre of setting a new trend of playing "dirty politics" for votes through the budget, an editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said the allocation of more funds to poll-bound states is a kind of "bribery".
The presentation of the Delhi government's Budget for 2023-24, which was scheduled for Tuesday, has been put on hold with the Kejriwal dispensation and the central government trading charges over allocations under various heads.
The income tax department has garnered about Rs 4,600 crore in taxes from 56 lakh updated I-T returns filed by taxpayers in the past two years, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chief Nitin Gupta said. In a post budget interview to PTI TV, Gupta also said the I-T department has set up a demand management centre at Mysuru, Karnataka, which is focusing on disputed pending large tax demands of above Rs 1 crore. "We are continuously improving the services and creating litigation free environment. We have come out with a facility for updation of return.
The Union Budget on Wednesday outlined several initiatives to drive India's technology agenda and boost digital infrastructure, including new centres of excellence for artificial intelligence, National Data Governance Policy, and Entity DigiLocker.
Addressing the inaugural session of the joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts in Delhi last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had appealed to them to give priority to cases related to undertrial prisoners languishing in jails and release them, as per law, based on human sensitivities.
The high deficit was bad enough, Parliament's standing committees won't be scrutinising budget proposals either.
The finance ministry has finalised the framework to issue sovereign green bonds in line with global standards, according to sources. The government intends to mobilise Rs 16,000 crore from the issuance of green bonds during the second half of the current financial year. It is a part of the borrowing programme for the second half of this fiscal. The framework is ready and it would be approved soon, the sources said.
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was the first and only women till now to have presented the Union Budget.
The Budget and related appropriation bills were passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday.
An analysis of the frequency of various watchwords in the finance minister's Budget speech shows that he was perhaps trying to hold on to his ideas without treading on anybody else's toes, says A K Bhattacharya.
Nitin Desai, who has known Dr Singh from 1971, extends his 'deepest condolences to his wife Gurcharan Kaur and to his three talented daughters Upinder, the historian; Daman, the writer; and Amrit, the human rights activist.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for 2023-24 in Parliament on February 1. The Budget is a statement of the government's estimated receipts and expenditures for a fiscal year (April 1 to March 31). It's divided into Revenue and Capital Budget. The Revenue Budget includes the government's revenue receipts and expenditures while the Capital Budget includes its capital receipts and payments.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that the government proposes to increase the benefit of carrying forward losses for startups to 10 years.
