The move would help in further promoting ease of doing business in the country.
7 key areas that the Budget must address to re-energise the infrastructure sector, suggests Vinayak Chatterjee.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday again took a digital tablet wrapped in a traditional 'bahi-khata' style pouch as she headed for Parliament to present Union Budget 2023-24 in a paperless format just like the previous two years. She posed for the traditional 'briefcase' picture outside her office along with her team of officials before heading to meet the President. She, however, was holding a tablet instead of a briefcase to present the Budget in a digital format.
Graphic description of the Budget's allotment.
The government plans to borrow a record Rs 15.4 lakh crore from dated securities in FY24 to meet its expenditure requirement to prop up the economy.
So how do you rate the Modi government's 10th budget which comes ahead of the crucial five-state election?
From the Sensex pack, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC Bank, Reliance Industries were among the major laggards. Bucking the trend, auto stocks Tata Motors and Mahindra & Mahindra closed with gains.
Outward remittances under the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) liberalised remittance scheme (LRS) surged by 50.64 per cent to $9.1 billion in the April-June quarter (first quarter, or Q1) of 2023-24 (FY24), driven by healthy growth across segments due to a revision in the timeline of tax collected at source under the LRS scheme and normalisation in international travel. Major drivers include equity and debt investments, deposits, and the international travel segment, among others. According to the latest RBI data, the amount remitted under LRS stood at $9.1 billion in Q1FY24, compared with $6.05 billion in the same quarter last year.
Glimpses of lady MPs as the nation's lady finance minister presents the Budget for the next financial year on Wednesday, February 1, 2023.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said that the government proposes to increase the benefit of carrying forward losses for startups to 10 years.
Equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty ended on a mixed note on Wednesday as the euphoria about the Budget fizzled out, with investors going for profit-taking ahead of the Fed interest rate decision. The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex climbed 158.18 points or 0.27 per cent to settle at 59,708.08 after it trimmed most of the intra-day gains. During the day, it had zoomed 1,223.54 points or 2 per cent to 60,773.44.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented his fourth Budget in Parliament on Monday.
The Budget session of the Parliament is likely to begin from February 25 with the Presidential Address to a joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha followed by presentation of rail budget and general budget on February 26 and 28.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has been allocated a total of Rs 18,050 crore in the Union Budget for 2023-24 which is an increase of around 4.64 per cent over last year's allocation of Rs 17,250 crore.
The rout in Adani Group stocks after US-based short seller Hindenburg Research released a report on January 24 has sparked a rebound in trading activity this month. The average daily trading volume (ADTV) for the cash segment (both NSE and BSE combined) so far in February stands at Rs 59,346 crore, and is around 15 per cent more than the previous month's tally of Rs 51,844 crore, which was the lowest in six months. The ADTV for the futures and options (F&O) segment rose to a record Rs 204 trillion (notional turnover) against Rs 202 trillion in January.
'Higher than expected inflation in the US or the European Union, faster than expected tightening by the major central banks, break out of a war in Europe, and withdrawal of portfolio equities from the emerging markets are factors which can result in equity market corrections.'
The agency received Rs 911 crore to manage its affairs in the Budget Estimates for 2022-23, which was later decreased to Rs 906.59 crore in the Revised Estimates.
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).
Unseasonal rains watered down the performance of consumer durables companies as temperatures cooled, impacting the sales of refrigerators and air conditioners (ACs) in the 2023-24 (FY24) April-June quarter. Centrum says in its report on the sector that the trade channel indicates a 25-30 per cent year-on-year (YoY) decline in sales of refrigerators and ACs in April and May due to restricted buying. "While some green shoots in demand were visible in June, overall growth for the quarter is likely to remain at a negative 10-12 per cent," observes the brokerage.
If a bank shuts down, every account holder it has will get back their money for a maximum limit of Rs 5 lakh. It was Rs 1 lakh before.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her fifth Budget that may do a tightrope walk between staying fiscally prudent and meeting general public expectations of lower taxes and a wider social security net, while at the same time firing the engines of the economy.
The middle class is a big force to fulfil dreams of a prosperous and developed India and our government has taken many decisions to empower it, the prime minister said.
The defence budget was increased to Rs 5.94 lakh crore for 2023-24, up from last year's allocation of Rs 5.25 lakh crore.
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.
The central government's fiscal deficit touched 67.8 per cent of the full-year target at the end of January due to higher expenses and lower revenue realisations, according to official data released on Tuesday. In actual terms, the fiscal deficit or gap between the expenditure and revenue collection during April-January period stood at Rs 11.9 lakh crore, as per the data from the Controller General of Accounts (CGA). The fiscal deficit in the comparable period of 2021-22 was 58.9 per cent of that year's Revised Estimate (RE) in the Budget.
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.
This is the first Budget in Amrit Kaal, she said.
Seeking to enhance green mobility, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the 'PM-eBus Sewa' scheme under which 10,000 electric buses will be provided to 169 cities under the public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is likely to reply in Rajya Sabha on the Union Budget 2022.
The Indian rupee may remain under depreciation pressure on account of plateauing of exports and subsequent widening of the current account deficit, said the Economic Survey 2022-23 tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. It said the "risks to the current account balance stem from multiple sources". The country's current account deficit (CAD) widened to 4.4 per cent of the GDP in the quarter ended September from 2.2 per cent in April-June due to higher trade gap, as per latest data of the Reserve Bank of India.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2022 in Parliament.
Pre-Budget excercise next month should scrupulously avoid adventurism of all types and refrain from making excessively ambitious projections on revenue and expenditure numbers for 2023-24, suggests A K Bhattacharya.
The government on Monday said that matters regarding Chinese intrusion can't be discussed in Parliament as it concerns the security of the country.
The dream-run in railway stocks may soon run out of steam, caution analysts. The rally, which has lasted nearly a year, may meet time-wise correction post the Union Budget announcements as investors begin scalping profits. "There is going to be a build-up in expectations for the sector from the Union Budget, which is still two-odd months away.
Sustaining the current 19.5 per cent growth rate in income and corporate tax collections may be difficult in next fiscal year given headwinds from a slowing world and high base effect, a government source said. Net direct taxes, which are made up of personal income tax and the tax levied on corporate earnings, have seen a record growth in current fiscal year, topping up the numbers projected in the Budget. The expected lower nominal GDP growth in 2023-24 on the back of threats of global recession could impact income tax collection, the government source told reporters ahead of the presentation of Union Budget 2023-24 on February 1.
Reminiscent of the past two years, the market has made positive strides ahead of the Union Budget 2023-24 (FY24). The benchmark National Stock Exchange Nifty has gained 1.8 per cent in the last month. Typically, markets tend to gain ahead of the Budget as investors build in optimism.
In her Budget 2023-24 presentation, she also said the Centre will launch the 'Dekho Apna Desh' initiative to promote domestic tourism.
This time, it might start between March 5 and 12 in view of polls, government sources said, citing that counting of votes is scheduled for March 4.
Party leader Rahul Gandhi dubbed the Union Budget as a 'zero-sum budget', saying it has nothing for the salaried, middle class and the poor.
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