Top 10 Budget headlines: Income tax rebate, fiscal deficit target, and more

Here are the top 10 business stories that made news on Friday

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal with MoS Finance ministers Shiv Pratap Shukla and P Radhakrishnan leaves the North Block to present the interim Budget 2019-20 at Parliament

Last Updated : Feb 02 2019 | 8:09 AM IST

Interim Budget has sops for voters, slips on fiscal deficit target again

In his presentation of the interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal made a strong pitch for the re-election of the National Democratic Alliance government. Although the convention is that a government facing re-election does not make any major taxation or spending proposals that would tie the hand of the next government, which would present the full Budget subsequently, Goyal’s speech laid out a series of appeals and promises to different sections of the electorate. Read on...

Tax benefits for above Rs 5 lakh income group may be considered next: Goyal

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal expressed confidence that the Narendra Modi government would return to power in the upcoming general elections, and that it might look at tax relaxations for individuals earning more than Rs 5 lakh annually in the full Budget for 2019-20. Read on...

Controlled hand-outs: Fiscal discipline maintained in an election year

As pre-election Budgets go, Piyush Goyal’s isn’t too bad. While vote-oriented announcements cost about Rs 1 trillion (or about half of 1 per cent of next year’s GDP), the fiscal deficit will remain unchanged from this year’s revised figure of 3.4 per cent of GDP. Read on...

Not an Interim Budget: Mr Goyal's first has all features of a full Budget

This is not an Interim Budget. What Finance Minister Piyush Goyal presented on Friday has no resemblance with any of the previous three Interim Budgets presented by his predecessors, Jaswant Singh in 2004, Pranab Mukherjee in 2009 and Palaniappan Chidambaram in 2014. Read on...

Interim Budget 2019: Goodies from the poll vault

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chose the Lok Sabha on Friday to launch its election campaign. And one single visual on our television screens summed it up: As Interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced the tax benefits for over 30 million middle-class tax payers, the House was reverberating with “Modi-Modi” slogan, and the prime minister was thumping his desk vigorously. As the camera zoomed in on Rahul Gandhi, the contrast was striking. For once in many months now, the Congress president was squirming and slouching in his chair and was wearing a blank look. Read on...

Budget from visitors' gallery: 'Modi' chant & the handshake that mattered

At 11:05 am, Congress MP Rajiv Satav sidled into the House. He whispered something to colleague Sushmita Deb and handed her a handful of laser-printed placards. One set said: ‘How’s the jobs!’ Another simply said: ‘15 lakh?’ These placards were raised every time Finance Minister Piyush Goel mentioned the word ‘jobs’ in his interim Budget speech. Read on...

Interim Budget 2019: Goyal puts extra cash in pockets of middle class

Finance Minister Piyush Goel has chosen to put extra money in the pockets of the middle class in an election year. In addition, he has tried to make life more convenient for deposit holders. Read on...

Budget 2019 a trailer, will guide India to prosperity, says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the interim Budget is merely a “trailer” of what will guide India towards prosperity after the Lok Sabha polls, and described it as something that will benefit all sections of society. Read on...

Interim Budget 2019: Govt misses fiscal deficit goal second year in a row

The government has revised the fiscal deficit target for 2018-19 or FY19 to 3.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) from the Budget Estimate (BE) of 3.3 per cent. For 2019-20 or FY20, Finance Minister (FM) Piyush Goyal has retained the fiscal deficit at 3.4 per cent of GDP, thus delaying the fiscal consolidation path to 3 per cent of GDP. Read on...

Interim Budget 2019: Income support scheme leaves farmers unhappy

Having lost three key state elections in the Hindi heartland on account of farmers’ anger over falling prices, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal announced that the government would transfer Rs 6,000 a year into the bank accounts of all eligible small and marginal farmers to meet their investment needs. Read on...