Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday proposed to double the limit for Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) on interest income for senior citizens to Rs 1 lakh, and also increase the threshold to Rs 6 lakh on rent from the current Rs 2.4 lakh.
Congress President and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday questioned Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over the Union Budget and claimed that the plates of all states except Bihar and Andhra Pradesh were empty in the budget allocation.
If it was Andhra Pradesh last Budget, it's poll-bound Bihar that has now turned to Centre with a list of demands. How the NDA government is delivering on promises.
There has been nothing consolidated in the Budget for this section that may transform entrepreneurship in any meaningful way
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.
Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan claimed that Modi held 13 pre-Budget consultation meetings which were attended by top industrialists, but to none of these meetings Sitharaman was invited.
#Budget2018 resulted in over 14 lakh conversations on Twitter.
The Union Budget on Monday evoked contrasting responses in the political arena with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party hailing it as a vision for an 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' and the Opposition describing it as a 'let down like never before' that was meant to 'deceive' people.
The government on Tuesday announced central assistance of Rs 2.2 lakh crore over the next five years to meet housing requirement of 1 crore urban poor and middle class families under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban and proposed interest subsidy to provide loans at affordable rates. In her Budget speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, "Under the PM Awas Yojana Urban 2.0, housing needs of 1 crore urban poor and middle-class families will be addressed with an investment of Rs 10 lakh crore." "This will include the central assistance of Rs 2.2 lakh crore in the next 5 years," she added.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her sixth straight Budget ahead of the Parliamentary elections, matching the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai. Sitharaman in her pre-election Budget, which technically is a vote on account and popularly termed an interim Budget, will seek Parliament's nod for a grant in advance to meet the central government's essential expenditure for the first four months of the new fiscal year that starts in April. A new government elected after the April/May general elections will present the full Budget, likely in July.
Belying expectations, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not tinker with the personal income tax rates in the Budget for 2022-23.
'Our vision is to innovate as many products as we can and solve as many problems as possible.'
'Budget document should not be treated as something secret any longer.'
According to state officials, the project envisages lifting of 17.40 thousand million cubic feet of water from river Thunga to Bhadra reservoir and 29.90 TMC from Bhadra reservoir.
The words that appeared more often in the speech included tax, income, lakh and crore.
Congress leader and ex-finance minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said the Union Budget was the "most capitalist" with nothing for the poor and farmers while sops were being provided to big industrialists turning India into a very "unequal country". At a press conference after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled a Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget, he said because of the ruling party's "brute majority" the Lok Sabha pass the Budget but people will reject it. He claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party was going to elections, scheduled in five states, not with their performance or with the promises and assurances to the people, but solely "with the agenda of dividing the country and bringing Hindutva back to power".
Evidently, households see a brighter future after the Budget, reveals Mahesh Vyas.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said she is likely to introduce the new income tax bill, which will replace the six-decade-old I-T Act, in the Lok Sabha in the coming week.
As the row erupted in Parliament, the Congress said the Gandhi family's caste is martyrdom but the BJP-RSS will never understand that.
The first Budget of Independent India was presented by R K Shanmukham Chetty on November 26, 1947.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced a Rs 11.11 lakh crore spending on infrastructure and vowed to continue reforms as she resisted resorting to populist measures in Modi government's last Budget before general elections, instead choosing to stay on the path of cutting deficit while bolstering measures for focus groups.
The finance minister continues to be backed by the same policy team in charting out the broad strategy as in the few earlier Budgets.
Sources in the Rural Development Ministry said the actual expenditure incurred in 2020-21 will be higher than the allocated funds and it will at least be at par with this year's total estimated expenditure of MGNREGS.
Exports dipped for the 14th month in a row.
Budget has already bombed at the box office and passing it without a revisit will be a mockery of the exercise though any modification may be short lived and perfunctory, observes V Ranganathan.
"There has been a 0.05 percentage points decline in the share of allocation for child budget to the Union Budget from 2.35 per cent (2022-23 BE) to 2.30 per cent (2023-24 BE).
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.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said the fiscal deficit for 2024-25 is estimated at 4.9 per cent of GDP.
The idea is to monitor centrally sponsored schemes, partly funded schemes, loans, programmes and any other endeavour into which funds are pumped.
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.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that the government proposes to increase the benefit of carrying forward losses for startups to 10 years.
The Union budget for 2023-24 has allocated Rs 1,258.68 crore for various heads of expenditure of the Union cabinet, including salaries, sumptuary and travel by ministers and entertainment of foreign state guests.
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.
'If the total amount is spent, it will be highest Budget spend on MGNREGA.'
Savitri and Narayanan Sitharaman arrived in a separate car in Parliament.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the much-awaited 2022-23 Union Budget on February 1. While there has been strong recovery in some sectors, touch services like hospitality, tourism and leisure continue to suffer after two Covid-19 waves. Household savings have been hit due to increased spending on health care. Consumption has still not reached pre-pandemic levels.
Unlike the previous visit, where TDP MPs accompanied Naidu to meetings, sources termed the current visit as "low profile", with one-on-one meetings with key Union ministers.
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".
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday said the National Rural Livelihood Mission has achieved remarkable success by mobilising rural women into 1 lakh SHGs (self help groups).
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced that comprehensive development of Vishnupad Temple corridor at Gaya and Mahabodhi Temple at Bodh Gaya in Bihar will be supported by the government to transform them into world-class pilgrim and tourist destinations. These corridors will be modelled on the successful Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor, she said. Vishnupad Temple is one of the most ancient Hindu shrines located next to the Falgu river, while the Mahabodhi Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.