New-look Budget may skip levy on cars, consumer durables & more

Budget planners for now have been told to prepare with assumption that GST will apply from April 1

The most structurally changed budget in independent India could be led by a speech unlike any one read in the past. Not only will the Union Budget have a much shorter section on taxation announcements, it will also contain railways proposals for the first time. Besides the date being advanced to February 1, it will be the first Budget to be presented after end of the five-year plan period concept. The other firsts, when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley reads the speech for the Budget 2017-18, will include classifying the Centre’s spending into revenue and capital expenditure rather than plan and