In sops for the middle class, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday hiked standard deduction by 50 per cent to Rs 75,000 and tweaked tax slabs under the new income tax regime to provide more money in the hands of salaried class with a view to boost consumption. She said salaried employees in the new tax regime could save up to Rs 17,500 in income tax annually following the changes announced in the Budget. The standard deduction for salaried employees is proposed to be increased from Rs 50,000 to Rs 75,000 annually.
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.
M Govinda Rao hopes the Budget will contain the deficit while continuing to create conditions for pushing growth.
Several BJP-backed state governments have unveiled schemes targeting the poor, women, farmers and students, following the party's setback in the Lok Sabha polls.
There are wide spread speculations in corridors of power in the Capital that Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia may take over as the next finance minister of India.
The recent 'revelation' by TN fishers freed by Sri Lanka after they had paid up Lankan rupees 50,000 each in fines, that their hair was tonsured in prison and they were forced to remove their garments other than the underpants, and were also made to clean toilets, as if with vengeance, has touched a raw nerve this time, just as another issue or issues had done it ahead of the Jallikattu protests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman on Monday held a performance review meeting with heads of public sector banks and asked them to make concerted efforts to garner deposits. Deposits have been growing 300-400 basis points lower than the credit growth in the last few months, creating an asset-liability mismatch for banks. During deliberations on the deposit mobilisation, she said that while the credit growth has picked up, mobilisation of deposits could further be improved to fund the credit growth sustainably, and asked banks to make concerted efforts to garner deposits by conducting special drives.
IDBI Bank's recent overseas money raising experience points to renewed interest in India.
Noting that elections will be held in four states, she urged party leaders to sustain the momentum and goodwill that had been generated for the party in the Lok Sabha elections.
'Digital courts will alleviate congestion in traditional courts.'
The allocated amount is substantially lower than the Rs 1,803.01 crore earmarked in 2023-24.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday announced the doubling of the upper limit of Mudra loans to Rs 20 lakh to promote entrepreneurship in the country. "The limit of Mudra loans will be enhanced to Rs 20 lakh from the current Rs 10 lakh for those entrepreneurs who have availed and successfully repaid previous loans under the 'Tarun category', she said while presenting the Budget in the Lok Sabha.
Fresh plans of privatisation or divestment in central public sector enterprises and public sector banks might take a back seat this financial year because these may require a large consensus among coalition partners.
The Survey is authored by Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran and his team.
The government may relax the requirement of making payments to MSMEs within 45 days of buying goods and services to check large corporate from looking at other sourcing avenues, sources said. The announcement to this effect could be made in the Budget likely to be presented on July 23. The government is considering suggestions regarding changes to Section 43B(h) of the Income Tax Act made by MSMEs during pre-Budget consultations, sources said.
'The nominal GDP growth assumption for FY25 may be revised upwards on higher growth expectations.'
India's finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is all set to become the next President of the country.
The Union Budget 2011-12 is just round the corner. On February 28, even as Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announces his Budget proposals there are a lot of challenges that face him.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has held discussions with ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) secretary Manoj Govil on the 'Aggregation of CA Firms' and the roadmap to create big Indian firms, a press statement by ICAI said.
Going by this Budget's estimate of government spending of Rs 48.2 trillion, the government has allocated a significantly lower percentage to defence -- 12.9 per cent.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his Telangana counterpart Revanth Reddy visited some inundated areas in their respective territories.
The government on Tuesday announced setting up of hubs to promote exports through e-commerce medium in public-private-partnership (PPP) mode and initially 10-15 hubs will be established. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that these hubs, under a seamless regulatory and logistic framework, will facilitate trade and export-related services under one roof. "To enable MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) and traditional artisans to sell their products in international markets, e-commerce export hubs will be set up in PPP mode," she said.
'The Budget needs to focus more on social welfare schemes.'
The disqualification of wrestler Vinesh Phogat in the Olympics after being found overweight before the final bout also saw the government and Opposition come to blows in Parliament.
The income-tax (I-T) department has started scrutinising cases for the assessment year (AY) 2018-19 to determine which of them need to be reopened, a process that might result in a raft of tax notices. This follows this year's Union Budget move to reduce the time limit for tax reassessment from 10 years to five in cases of escaped income. The new provision becomes effective on September 1 and will make past assessments for AY 2018-19 time-barred.
'We are confident that over the next few years the government will strike a fine balance between populist measures and growth, and manage coalition partners well.'
You too can send in your suggestion of what the Budget should be like.
The finance chiefs face the daunting task of putting flesh on the bare bones of the agreement reached by EU leaders last month, intended to stem the fiscal bleed afflicting the region.
Mahmud went to Dhaka's Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to "catch a flight en route to Delhi," an Airport Aviation Security official was quoted as saying by the Dhaka Tribune newspaper.
Fitch Ratings on Tuesday said the FY25 Budget demonstrated the government's ongoing commitment to reducing fiscal deficit and ensured policy continuity during the NDA government's new term. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday presented the first Budget of the Modi 3.0 government in which she revised the deficit target for current fiscal lower to 4.9 per cent of the GDP, from 5.1 per cent projected in the interim Budget.
The government proposes to cut custom duties on Trastuzumab Deruxtecan, Osimertinib and Durvalumab from 10 per cent to nil.
Whether she will pare the fiscal deficit target of 5.1 per cent of GDP, using the record dividend received from the RBI, or expand flagship government programmes will be keenly watched.
Will he tax the salaried class more? Will he give respite to the corporates? Will he smile at the housewife, the pensioner, the middle class? Will he usher in more reforms to boost the economy?
'When it is unpaid, sometimes, they don't take you seriously.' 'Work is not reviewed, and there is no effort in making interns learn.'
In a relief to individual tax payers, the government on Friday changed the slabs cutting the rate to 10 per cent for income up to Rs five lakh, while leaving the threshold limit for tax-free income unchanged at Rs 1.6 lakh.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday announced plans to increase milk and dairy production in the country. India is the largest milk producer in the world but there is low productivity, the finance minister said.
Duvvuri Subbarao recounts how his tensions with P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee, then finance ministers, over monetary policy spilled over into other issues in the central bank in this excerpt from Who Moved My Interest Rate?, his memoir of his term as Reserve Bank of India governor.
The new government would assume charge with swearing-in of Prime Minister designate Narendra Modi and members of his Cabinet on May 26.
However, the prime minister has told confidants that he was unable to do justice to the foreign affairs portfolio and admitted the need for a full-time foreign minister.
Highlights of the Union Budget 2024-25 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
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