Budget 2019 HIGHLIGHTS | No I-T up to 5L

At his speech in Parliament, interim FM Piyush Goyal announced that tax reforms taken out by the government have led to a significant increase in taxes. He announced that to reduce the tax burden to small taxpayers to individual taxpayers, up to Rs 5 lakh annual income will get a full tax rebate. Existing rates will continue. He also announced a slew of benefits for farmers, rural regions and the working-class. Goyal announced that all I-T returns will be processed in 24 hours and refunded simultaneously. He also announced that India is poised to become $5 trillion-economy in next 5 yrs and Infrastructure will be built for a $10 trillion economy, which India will achieve by 2030.On Thursday, President Ram Nath Kovind kicked off the Budget session with a customary address to a joint sitting of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha where he outlined the achievements of the NDA government and set out a roadmap for the future.Thank you for tuning in. For the latest news, views and analysis visit https://www.deccanherald.com/

'Know Your Budget' better with FinMin's Twitter series

Seeking to educate the general public about the budgetary process, the finance ministry started a series on Twitter providing definitions of various terms used in the budget.

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Know your budget: Revenue and primary deficits

Revenue and primary deficits

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Know your budget: Terms you should know

DH brings to you some terminologies that you should be aware of during the Finance Minister’s Budget Speech.

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DH Deciphers: Full Budget? Interim Budget? VoA?

It is routine to present a Union Budget for the coming fiscal, but in an election year, outgoing central governments are expected to present only a Vote on Account (VoA) or, at most, an Interim Budget. The speculation is over whether the Modi government will present a VoA or a full budget.

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Interim Budget: Govt's achievements to guide FM speech

Minister-in-charge of Finance Piyush Goyal will present the Budget and seek Parliament’s approval for incurring expenditure for three-four months until a new government is installed after the general elections. The finance minister's speech will be shorter than usual and will mainly concentrate on the achievements of the government in the past five years.

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Budget: Goyal to appease farmers, middle class

The interim budget of NDA government will outline the agenda of the ruling dispensation which has decided to bet big on farmers, women, middle class and youth in next Lok Sabha polls.

Read more https://www.deccanherald.com/business/budget-goyal-appease-farmers-714585.html

Modi plans to raise rural spending by 16% to woo voters

In its interim budget on Friday, the government is set to earmark about 1.3 trillion rupeesfor the Ministry of Rural Development, up from 1.12 trillion rupees in the current fiscal year.

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Budget 2019: Key highlights from President's speech

Key highlights from President Ram Nath Kovind's joint address to a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament.

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Tune in to DH for live updates of Union Budget 2019

We will have experts covering various aspects of Budget 2019 all through the day on February 1.

Budget should focus on enabling growth of e-commerce

The interimbudget should focus on creating the enabling conditions to further power the growth of India Inc, writes Neelesh Talathi of Pepperfry.

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4 things to know about the Interim Budget

1. This is the 5th budget of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government and the first one to be presented by interim finance minister Piyush Goyal.

2. The Budget comes a day after a massive row over the job creation data. The numbers revealed that India's unemployment is at a 45-year-high. Caught off guard, the government said that it has no data on the unemployment in India.

3. The budget, which is going to be interim in nature, is expectedto be ultra populist in nature.

4. Lot of sops are expected in the budget, especially targeting the middle class, just before the 2019 General Elections

GDP growth rate for 2017-18 revised upwards to 7.2 pc

The government on Thursday revised the economic growth rate upwards to 7.2 per cent for 2017-18 from the 6.7 per cent estimated earlier.

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Unemployment data catches govt on wrong foot

Hit by the jobs data row, the Centre on Thursday admitted that it had no idea what India's unemployment rate was at present andagreed India did not create enough quality jobs in the four-and-a-half year rule of the Modi government.

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More things to know about the interim budget

1. A large farm package is expected in the budget to address the agrarian crisis. It will push the borrowing.

2. There are also hopes of Universal Basic Income mooted by former CEA Arvind Subramanian, being rolled out. According to estimates, it might cost Rs 1.5 lakh crore to thegovernment.

3. Also, the government is expected to address the concern of the salaried class with abit of sops offered in personal taxation.

Yesterday's Stock market reaction to the interim budget

1. A day prior to Budget 2019, the markets witnessed a huge bull. The 30-share BSE Sensex jumped by 665.44 points to close at 36,256.69 points on Thursday and the broader index, NSE Nifty jumped by 179.15 points to close at 10,830.95 points.

1. 2. The major push to markets, a day before the budget, came from FIIs and FPIs. The foreign funds deposited a net of Rs 3,006.41 crore in the Indian debt and equity markets.
3. 3. On the other hand, domestic investors pulled out a net of Rs 1,634.32 crore from the markets.
5. 4. Investors, who are very sensitive to the policy decisions, would be keenly watching the fiscal deficit numbers. On the fiscal front, slippages of 20 basis points is expected against the set fiscal deficit target of 3.3% of GDP.
7. 5. The slippages in the fiscal deficit are mostly on the back of lower indirect tax collection.

Modi to raise rural spending by 16% to woo voters

The BJP govt is likely to raise its rural welfare spending by 16 per cent for the fiscal year beginning April, two government sources said, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi tries to woo the farm vote ahead of thegeneral elections due by May.

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Amid a lot of promises, mkt to watch FM's Budget math

As the Central government prepares to present its final budget ahead of the general elections, all eyes from the market will be trained on Parliament with a lot of promises on offer.

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Interim Budget: Govt's achievements to guide FM speech

The finance minister's speech during this year's interim budget will be shorter than usual and will mainly concentrate on the achievements of the government in the past five years.

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Analysts chime in on the market and corporate sector's expectations on today's budget presentation

The markets would be keenly watching the government's plans for banking issues, divestment plans and fiscal prudence, according to analysts.

2. The mood in thecorporate sector is that there would be nothing in store for them, but then they aren't expecting any negative news for them in the budget. This is the primary reason for markets rallying yesterday, according to Rahul Shah of Motilal Oswal.

Income tax concession, farm relief may figure in Budget

Income tax concessions for individuals, a farm relief package, support for small businesses and possible populist spending measures may be part of the Budget that Finance Minister Piyush Goyal will present on Friday as the government makes a last-ditch attempt to woo voters ahead of the general elections.

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Cabinet to meet in Parliament at 10 AM to approve the interim budget ahead of the 11 AM presentation by Piyush Goyal.

Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal will present the Interim Budget 2019-20 at 11 am. The trend of presenting budgets at 11 am was started by former finance minister Yashwant Sinha in 1999.

In 2017, finance minister Arun Jaitley changed the system of presenting the Budget from the last day of February to February 1 so that the government departments get enough time to implement their schemes effectively.

Sensex jumps over 100 points ahead of Budget 2019

The BSE benchmark Sensex jumped over 100 points ahead of the Budget presentation by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal amid heavy buying by foreign portfolio investors.

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1. "Ayushman Bharat needs Rs 1 lakh crore of government financing. Are we going to see it in this budget? This will be interesting," says Pavan Srinath, Fellow and Faculty at Takshashila Foundation.

2. Markets would be keenly watching the revenue growth projections of the government. Last year, thegovernment projected a 16.7% increase in their gross tax revenues. That is expected to be the ceiling for this year's budget.

3. The Rupee is trading at71.12 against US Dollar ahead of the Budget.

Know your budget: Terms you should know

As the country is heading for yet another budget in the build-up to 2019 election, DH brings to you some terminologies that you should be aware of during the Finance Minister’s Budget Speech.

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Bengaluru-based indirect tax expert weighs in on the GST front for the interim budget.

1. "I don't think there will be amajor announcement on the GST front. There would few tweaks on the customs. The GST revenue estimates would definitely lower than the last year," says Mohan R Lavi, Bengaluru-based indirect tax expert.

2. CGST collection for the current financial year is far below the budgeted estimates.

Interim or full-budget: Oppn asks Govt

The issue of whether the government is presenting a full-budget or an interim budget was raised in the all-party meeting here on Thursday.

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1. The two things that they are going to talk about -- farmers distress and small and medium enterprises. Just to appease the masses, there might be an exemption limit. However, my concern is about the deficit - says M Govinda Rao, Member 14th Finance Commission.

2. The government has set the fiscal deficit target at 3.3% of the GDP. However, slippages are expected.

1.The net of income tax growth expected to be around 12,5%, says Govinda Rao.

2. I am not expecting not many change. They might also announce the formation of direct tax code. There might be some sops offered to salaried class, says Anand Dhelia from PwC India.

1. We need to move towards the accrual-based accounting system for thegovernment to stop creative accounting, says Rao.

2. "Defence pensions alone crossed Rs 1 lakh Crore in last year -- a full 25% of the overall defence budget. How much will it balloon this year? How much will the government commit to spending on defence modernisation in an election year?" says Pavan Srinath, Fellow and Faculty at the Takshashila Institution

India has achieved higher GDP growth than any other economy since the start of economic reforms: Piyush Goyal in Parliament

Finance minister Piyush Goyal said inflation down to 2.19% in December 2018. This was possible due to measures taken by the government.

Govind Rao counters the inflation jibe of Piyush Goyal saying that oil price was pegged at $130 a barrelduring the UPA era.

Fiscal deficit target revised

Government revises fiscal deficit target to 3.4% of GDP from 3.3%

FM moves on to anti-open-defecation programme, saying it has become a national revolution @DeccanHerald #UnionBudget2019

— Sitaraman Shankar (@shankarsview) February 1, 2019

FM makes a mention of 10% reservation for poor among forward castes. Says there will be no shortage of university seats @DeccanHerald #UnionBudget2019

— Sitaraman Shankar (@shankarsview) February 1, 2019

Rs 3 lakh crore has been recovered in favour of banks. To restore the health of public sector banks- recapitalisation has been done: Piyush Goyal

Farmers' income to be doubled by 2022, says Piyush Goyal during his speech.

Current Account Deficit to be contained at 2.5% says Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.

Rs 60,000 crore set aside for MNREGA this year, says Piyush Goyal.

We have constructed 1.53 lakh houses under PM housing plan: Piyush Goyal

Electricity for all households will be a reality by March 2019: FM Piyush Goyal

21 AIIMS operating or being established. 14 of these after 2014. Haryana will get 22nd AIIMS: Piyush Goyal

Ayushman Bharat, the largest healthcare programme was launched. 10 lakh people have been treated under this scheme so far: Piyush Goyal

Rs 1,70,000 crore spent for bringing food at affordable rates to poor people: Interim FM Piyush Goyal

Farmers Owning Up To 2 Hectares To Get Rs 6,000 Per Year; 12 crore farmers to benefit.Money to be directly transferred to beneficiaries accounts. To be released in 3 instalments of Rs 2000 each.

Under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, the government will spend Rs 20,000 crore in FY19 and Rs 75,000 crore in FY 20: Goyal

Government allocates Rs 754 crore for cow welfare, along with 2% interest subvention for farmers pursuing animal husbandry and fishery. Goyal says India is the second largest fish producer with more than 7% annual growth. Separate department of fisheries to be created.

Government increases increase in Gratuity limit, up from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh.

Government to provide social security to house-maids through pensions. The pension would be Rs 3,000 / per month after retirement.

Mega Pension Yojana called Pradhan Mantri Shramyogi Mandhan where in Rs 3000 pension amount for employees in theunorganised sector. The government has allocated Rs 500crore for the same.

Women left to women included programme. The government has given 6 crore free cooking gas cylinders. 8 crore cylinders to be given next year. More than 70% of women are getting affordable collateral-free loans, says Goyal.

A committee under NITI Aayog to be set up to for denotified nomadic & semi-nomadic communities.

India is 2nd largest hub of startups, National Artificial Intelligence portal will be developed soon.

Govt projects now have to source 25% of their requirements from SMEs: Goyal

India is the fastest highway developer in the world. Flagship program of Sagarmala have been developed: Goyal

All unmanned level crossing on the broad-gauge network have been perfectly eliminated

Goyal says soldiers are our pride and honour. One rank, One pension - we have disbursed over Rs 35,000 cr. Defence budget - if necessary, additional funds will be provided

Moving towards New India by 2022, says FM Goyal

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the Narendra Modi-led government had the decisive mandate to continue structured reforms and it was moving towards realising a "New India by 2022".

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Piyush Goyal: Monthly mobile data consumption has increased 50x in last 5 years; cost of data voice calls in India is possibly the lowest in the world

Direct tax collections have increased from Rs 6.38 lakh crore in FY15 to Rs 12 lakh crore in FY19 due to a reduction in tax rates over the years. Online tax filings have reached 99.4% in the country.

I-T dept all returns to be processed in 24 hours and refunds simultaneously. In two years, almost all returns selected for scrutiny will be done anonymously without any personal interface.

Govt wants GST burden on home-buyers to come down: Goyal

Goyal on demonetisation and drive against black money: Our govt committed to eliminating the ills of black money. Anti-black money measures have brought 1,30,000 crore and seizure of assets of 50,000 cr.

Rationalisation of customs duty is carried out. Full and comprehensive digitisation and leveraging RFID to improve tax collections.

Single window clearance for filmmaking to be made available to Indian filmmakers, anti-camcording provision to be introduced to combat film privacy.

Goyal: India is poised to become $5 trillion-economy in next 5 yrs. Says 10 dimensions to this vision. Infrastructure to be built for a $10 trillion economy

Goyal: EVs will provide energy security, reduce oil import dependence. Electric vehicles key part of Govt's vision for 2030.

Fiscal deficit to be at 3.4% of GDP for 2019-20. No Consolidation expected. Expenditure to increase by 13.3% to Rs 24.57 lakh crore

Confident that we will reach the divestment target of Rs 80,000 cr; will focus on debt consolidation instead of fiscal consolidation: Goyal.

Allocation to scheduled caste section is increased 35.6% to Rs 76,800 crore in FY20 from Rs 62,474 crore in FY 19.

Tax reforms taken out by the government have led to a significant increase in taxes. Reduce tax burden to small taxpayers to individual taxpayers up to Rs 5 lakh annual income will get full tax rebate. existing rates will continue.

TDS threshold on interest earned from bank and post office income has been raised from Rs 10,000 to Rs, 40,000.No TDS on house rent up to Rs 2.4 lakh per year

This is not just an interim budget. This is a vehicle to achieve development of the nation.

Capital gains exemption under Sec 54 increased to Rs 2 cr.Rs 18,500 cr tax SOP for middle class announced.

Goyal says progress has become a people's revolution. Quotes Maharashtrian poet who wrote in Hindi.

Benchmarkindicator Sensex gains 326.86 points as the finance minister Piyush Goyal commended the Interim Budget to the augusthouse.

India attracted FDI worth USD 239 bn in last 5 yrs: FM

India has received massive foreign direct investment worth USD 239 billion in the last five years on account of a stable and predictable regulatory regime, growing economy and strong fundamentals, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said Friday.

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'Rs 3 lakh cr recovered from big corporate defaulters'

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said Rs 3 lakh crore have been recovered from big corporate loan defaulters.

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PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, Govt's dole for small farmers

The Government on Friday announced Rs 6,000 per year cash support to small and marginal farmers that will cost the exchequer Rs 75,000 crore annually, in a bid to provide relief to the distressed farm sector.

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WATCH | FM Piyush Goyal's Budget Speech in the Parliament

Tax exemption for income up to Rs 5 lakh, says FM

Battling agrarian crisis and massive farmer anger, Modi government on Friday sprinkled goodies on almost all sectors with emphasis on middle calls and small and marginal farmers announcing biggest IT relief in decades exempting incomeup to Rs 5 lakh annually and promising a direct benefit transfer of Rs 6,000 in every farmer’s account in a year.


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"I think it is an election budget. Very strong on rhetoric and expected lines. Every country has an electoral budget cycle. Keeping that in view it is not surprising that there is a big income support scheme for the farmers amounting to Rs 75,000 crore @ Rs 6,000 per farmer owning two hectares of lands. The details of this will have to be seen -- is it only for owners or cultivators and how this is going to be rolled out. We will have to await details about implementation.

The second major measure that has been taken is the increase in rebate per individual taxpayer up to Rs 5 lakh. The revenue cost of Rs 22,000 crore seems to imply the taxpayers above Rs 5 lakh may not gain from this. However, we need to see the fine print.

There has been a marginal slippage in the fiscal consolidation from the targeted 3.3% in 2018-19 to 3,4%, mainly due to farmer's package. Going further, it's not clear what estimated fiscal deficit is.

Finally, I would say the budget talks about the giveaways on one hand and projects vision statement for 10 years. Somehow it has become customary in the Union Budget that all actions have to come from the centre, ignoring 7th Schedule to the constitution. Most of the proposals made on the expenditure side in this budget relate to subjects within the state list."

Govind Rao.

Other banks to be out of PCA framework soon, says FM

A day after three PSU banks were removed from Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) framework of the RBI, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday expressed hope that other remaining 8 lenders will be out of the list soon.

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Govt broke the back of high inflation: Goyal

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the government has been able to contain double-digit inflation and has restrained the "back-breaking" inflation to an average 4.6 per cent.

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'10 lakh patients treated under Ayushman Bharat scheme'

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said 10 lakh patients have been treated so far under the Ayushman Bharat scheme, the world's largest health care programme.

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"He has given all feel good statements about GST in the budget. But the reality of the ground is different. Though they can't propose any changes in GST tax rates, the reduction in the tax rates for the real estate sector was proposed by the 31st GST Council Meeting to a committee, that was repeated in the budget.

Wish there was some more transparency in the GST revenues distribution". -Mohan R Lavi

Pavan Srinath on Defence and Healthcare

"In today's budget speech, the Farmer Income Support scheme looks like a better idea than another round of farm loan waivers, even with the current details available.

It was disappointing not to see hard numbers on Ayushman Bharat in the budget speech. Mr Goyal said that beneficiaries have saved about Rs 3,000 Crores in health expenditures, but this is just a drop in the ocean -- given that Indians spend over Rs 5 lakh Crores in private health expenditure. We will have to see how serious the allocations for this health insurance scheme is in 2019-20.

The most bizarre part of the budget speech was Mr Piyush Goyal talking about the movie Uri, a sideways reference to the government's surgical strike." says Pavan Srinath, Fellow and Faculty at the Takshashila Institution.

"Celebrating the government's passing of One-Rank-One-Pension, Mr Goyal mentioned that the government has spent 35,000 Crore Rs till date on its implementation. What was left unmentioned was that the defence pension budget alone was at Rs 1.08 lakh crores last year, and is likely to increase further this year. This is more than a third of the rest of the defence budget of India and is increasingly unsustainable. For context, India is paying much more for defence pensions every year than the proposed farmer income support plan." says Pavan Srinath, Fellow and Faculty at the Takshashila Institution.

Road construction trebled under Gram Sadak Yojana: FM

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the construction of rural roads trebled under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and 2.5 crore rural households were electrified.

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Budget 2019: Sensex, Nifty hold on to gains

Benchmark equity indices held on to gains on Friday morning even as the Budget overshot the fiscal deficit target for the current financial year.

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Anand Dhelia on Personal Tax

This was the 13th interim budget in Indian history, where there is a stimulus for the middle class and farmers to cheer, especially the Kissan Samadhan Niddhi and rebate for middle class up to Rs 5 lakh will be welcomed. Further, the increase of standard deduction to 50K from 40 K for the salaried class is also a welcome change. Note that the rebate is applicable only for individuals earning income only up to 5 lakhs. People earning in excess of 5 lakhs will not be eligible for the rebate.

Further, relief for Common man is that they can have two self-occupied property instead of a one and enhancement of section 54 exemption which only provided for one self-occupied will have two properties.

Clearly, these are goodies provided to the common man, which will definitely increase their consumable expenditure. Having said that, this will have an impact on Fiscal Deficit but the estimation is around 3.4 % which is not bad given the benefits provided.

To conclude there is something to cheer for aam-aadmi and welcome change.

Read: Piyush Goyal's interim budget speech

MHA sees 10.58% rise in budget allocation

The allocation for the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) increased by 10.58% for 2019-20 fiscal with the expenditure for paramilitary forces showing an increase in the interim budget presented on Thursday.

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Government allocates Rs 64,587 crore for railways

The Government on Friday allocated Rs 64,587 crore for Railways in 2019-20 and overall capital expenditure for the national transporter will be Rs.1,58,658 crore.

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Budget allocation over the years in the NDA government

Watch: Piyush Goyal's post-budget press confernce

Key points from Union Budget 2019

The BJP-led NDA government presented its last Budget today, before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Here is a look at the key points of the Budget presented by the interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal:

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Defence budget pegged at Rs 3.05 lakh crore

An outlay of Rs 3.05 lakh crore was on Friday set aside for the defence budget for 2019-20 which was a hike of around Rs 20,000 crore compared to the allocation of Rs 2.85 lakh crore in the current fiscal.

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Budget credit negative, has only giveaways: Moody's

Terming the inability to meet fiscal deficit target for four consecutive years as a big "credit negative" for the sovereign, global rating agencyMoody's Friday doubted if the country will meet even the 3.4 percent fiscal gap target for FY20.

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Govt to form panel for nomadic,semi-nomadic communities

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said that a committee under Niti Aayog will be set up to complete the task of identifying de-notified, nomadic and semi-nomadic communities not yet formally classified.

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Ayushman Bharat inputs from Pavan Srinath

Budget 2019-20 Allocation for PMJAY: Ayushman Bharat - 6,400 Crores

Coverage: Complete Health Insurance for 500 million Indians.

As insurance premium: this is Rs 120 per person.

Rs 600 per family.

What health insurance can you buy for that?

Indians spend over 5 lakh Cr (5 Trillion) rupees out of pocket on healthcare. How can a 6400 Crore scheme change that?

Overall, Govt of India's health spending is still at 65000 Cr, just 0.3% of GDP. It is simply not enough. Our states do more, but that is not enough either.

Piyush Goyal presented a full budget: Chidambaram

Rs 3.34 lakh crore: Subsidy bill for next fiscal

The country's subsidy bill will rise by 11.70% in the next fiscal with the interim budget pegging the figure at Rs 3.34 lakh crore based on a rise in food, fertiliser and oil subsidies.

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Member of the 14th Finance Commission M Govinda Rao shares his thoughts on Interim Budget.

Union Budget is ‘cotton candy’ for farmers: HDK

'Dus Ka Dum': Govt's 10 point agenda for Vision 2030

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday announced a 10-point agenda to achieve the Central Government's Vision 2030.

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Sandalwood welcomes Union Budget 2019

Sandalwood wholeheartedly welcomed Finance Minister Piyush Goyal'sannouncement of a single window system to clear approvals for shooting and an anti-camcording provision in the Cinematograph Act, 1952 to combat film piracy.

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It's a pro-people budget: RSS affiliates

Welcoming the budget for 2019-20, two affiliates of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) said it was pro-people and a step towards ensuring universal basic income.

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'Ayushman Bharat helped 10 lakh people save Rs 3k cr'

Availing treatment free of cost under the #AyushmanBharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna (AB-PMJAY) has helped around 10 lakh people save Rs 3,000 crore since its launch in September, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said.

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Budget is 'jumla', fraud: Kamal Nath

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath on Friday termed the interim budget presented by Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal as a "jumla" and "chalava" (fraud)).

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'Raising IT exemption limit will benefit middle class'

Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the government's decision to exempt income of up to Rs 5 lakh from tax will benefit the "great Indian Middle Class".

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Cartoon on Union Budget by Sajith Kumar