- Arun Jaitley has made a contribution to the Economic Survey by authoring a section of the report card. This is for the first time that a finance minister wrote a section in the survey. "The Survey has greatly benefitted from the comments and insights of the Hon'ble Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who also authors a section in the Survey, possibly the first such contribution by a Finance Minister," Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian said.
- Mr Jaitley will reply to questions by Twitterati on the proposals in the Budget after its presentation in the Lok Sabha, news agency Press Trust of India reported. "I shall be presenting the Union Budget for 2017-18 today. I shall be happy to respond to your questions which you can send directly to me," Mr Jaitley said. The questions can be asked on Twitter by using hashtag #MyQuestionToFM.
- This Budget will break the 92-year-old tradition of presenting the Railway Budget separately. The Rail Budget will be merged with the Union Budget. The end of a separate Budget will be a relief for the Railways, since its revenue deficit and capital expenditure will now get transferred to the Finance Ministry. The Railways is also facing an accumulated burden of a whopping Rs 4.83 lakh crore towards execution of 458 unfinished and ongoing projects.
- Running trains at 200 kmph on the Delhi-Howrah and Delhi-Mumbai routes, allocation of Rs 20,000 crore for safety upgrade and customised trains for agri products are likely to be in focus.
- Ahead of the expected GST rollout from July 1, Mr Jaitley may increase the service tax rate to bring it into line with the proposed standard rate under the new tax regime. The service tax rate may be increased from 14 per cent at present to 16-18 per cent. Mr Jaitley also defended demonetisation, saying the drive "shook" the financial system for a short while, but will integrate the shadow economy with the formal in the long run and ensure better tax compliance.
- The Economic Survey said that the demonetisation, effected in November 2016, could have particularly "profound impact" on the real estate sector. "Real estate you do see a blip in prices, sales and launches and of course some of it may be adverse to the economy but in the long, some of that could be good because aim of demonetisation is to bring down real estate prices," said Mr Subramanian, the lead author of this pre-Budget document on the state of economy.
- Budget will likely offer modest tax concessions and ramp up spending to help the economy recover. Paying for those giveaways may require Mr Jaitley to slow the pace of fiscal tightening, officials told news agency Reuters.
- In Union Budget 2017-18, banks expect the government to boost consumption demand through personal income tax sops, including higher exemption limit, additional deductions under Section 80C and interest on home loans. Banks are also eyeing incentives from the government for digital transactions, including tax benefits for customers as well as merchants.
- Curtailment of education fees, cheaper electronic gadgets and more focus on jobs are some of the expectations Young India has from the Budget 2017-18, news agency IANS reported. Boosting the digital economy and ramping up the start-up industry are also few measures likely to be considered.
- Ahead of the Budget, Ficci's latest Business Confidence Survey, the Overall Business Confidence Index (OBCI) has revealed that India Inc's business confidence slipped to a four quarter low as demonetisation pulled down performance and clouded its assessment of the economy, Press Trust of India reported.
ADVERTISEMENT
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU
POPULAR
1
Netflix's Mike Tyson-Jake Paul Boxing Bout Gets 65 Million Viewers At Peak
2
COP29: Saudis Resist Restating Fossil Fuel Transition Pledge
3
COP29: Week One Ends In Deadlock As Divisions Stall Climate Action Progress
4
Manipur Violence: 4 More MLAs' Houses Torched, Agitators Attempt To Storm CM's Ancestral Residence
5