Union Budget 2020 LIVE: Major Relief For Taxpayers, Tax Slabs Rejigged
Catch all live updates of Nirmala Sitharaman's second budget with BOOM's Budget Live Blog
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget before the Lok Sabha at 11 am on Saturday. This will be the second budget of the re-elected government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will look to kickstart the economy while attempting a balancing act between growth and fiscal prudence.
The fiscal deficit, from April to November, is already at 115% of the budgeted deficit, which is at 3.3% of GDP. Unemployment is at a 45-year high according to the Periodic Labour Force Survey, pegging the unemployment rate for 2017 - 2018 at 6.1%. India's growth in the second quarter of financial year 2019 - 2020 stood at 4.5%, the lowest in six years, with the Reserve Bank of India cutting India's growth forecasts for the ongoing financial year from 6.1% to just 5%. Institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the State Bank of India (SBI) too have followed suit, having cut India's growth projections in their own forecasts. In December 2019, official data showed inflation at 7.35%, breaching the Reserve Bank Of India's medium-term upper ceiling of retail inflation of 6%. This figure was at a three-year high, being driven primarily by food inflation, which rose at 14.12% in December.
The budget also comes at a time when the government has taken disinvestment decisions to shore up its finance, such as putting 100% of Air India up for sale and giving incentives for investment by cutting corporation tax, up to 10 percentage points for corporations.
Live Updates
- 1 Feb 2020 6:53 AM GMT
₹2,500 crores towards the tourism sector: FM
- 1 Feb 2020 6:15 AM GMT
First theme of the budget: Aspirational India
Committed to the goal of doubling farmer income by 2022
- 1 Feb 2020 6:10 AM GMT
₹69,000 crores to be allocated towards the health sector: FM
- 1 Feb 2020 6:09 AM GMT
₹2.83 lakh crore allocation for agriculture, irrigation; ₹1.23 lakh crore allocation for 'panchayat raj', rural development: FM
- 1 Feb 2020 6:06 AM GMT
Farmer Producer Organsations to be expanded towards Fish-Farmer Organisations: FM
- 1 Feb 2020 6:03 AM GMT
Agri-credit pegged at ₹15 lakh crores: FM
- 1 Feb 2020 6:01 AM GMT
'One Product, One District' focus of products in horticulture
- 1 Feb 2020 6:00 AM GMT
Indian Railways to set up 'Kisan Rail' for the transport of perishable goods; 'Krishi Udan' to be launched by Ministry of Civil Aviation
- 1 Feb 2020 5:58 AM GMT
India has 652 millions tones capacity of agri-warehousing. Govt. to provide additional funding for warehousing solutions,
- 1 Feb 2020 5:55 AM GMT
Comprehensive measure 100 water-stretched districts; PM Kusum scheme linked pump-sets to solar sources, to be expanded for 20 lakh solar pumps. Another 15 lakh farmers to get solar pumps.