Budget 2018-19

  BUDGET SESSION 2021  UPDATES: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Economic Survey today. Stay tuned for LIVE updates on Budget session of the Parliament BUDGET SESSION 2021 LIVE UPDATES: The Budget Session of Parliament begins today, two days before the Union Budget 2021-22 is presented. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Economic Survey 2020-21 in Parliament today, which provides a summary of the annual economic development across the country during the financial year. With the ongoing farmers’ protest, this year’s Budget session is expected to be a stormy one. The Budget session will begin with President Ram Nath Kovind addressing a joint session of Parliament. However, as many as 18 Opposition parties have announced that they will boycott the President’s address in solidarity with farmers protesting against the three Union laws. Announcing the decision, Ghulam Nabi Azad, leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, said the 16 parties also d...

Centre is merely collecting taxes in a divisible pool on behalf of the states, and sharing it with them   Union budget 2018 : Quoting Rabindranath Tagore on how a self-sustaining village can make a mark in democracy, the Economic Survey, tabled in Parliament on Monday, has expressed concern over increased dependence on revenue devolution instead of self-generation. While previous government policy statements have focussed on a cooperative federalism, the underlying theme of goods and service tax (GST), the Survey this time talks about fiscal federalism. It acknowledges there is an important legal argument that resources received by the states as part of successive Finance Commission verdicts are not “devolved” resources, but shared. In this view, the Centre is merely collecting taxes in a divisible pool on behalf of the states, and sharing it with them. But, this position, the Survey says, must be assessed against certain realities. It is difficult to dispel the ...

The median forecast from over 40 economists polled Jan 24-29 was for India's government to borrow 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal 2018-19.   Union budget 2018 : India is expected to unveil only modest stimulus at this week's budget, a Reuters poll of analysts showed, despite it being the last before the next election, with government spending likely limited by longer-term efforts to trim the fiscal deficit. Fiscal consolidation was first proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in its maiden budget in fiscal 2014/15, aiming to break a long line of Indian governments that preferred to borrow and spend. But in following budgets, the timeframe for reaching a reduction to a 3.0 percent fiscal deficit target was pushed back. The latest Reuters poll shows the government is expected to delay the timeframe for hitting that target by another year, for the third year in a row, due to setbacks in the...

Conditions were different when report came out; Budget won't be outright populist, govt must show fiscal discipline, says CEA The recommendations of the fiscal responsibility and budget management (FRBM) panel, which had recommended a fiscal deficit target of 3 per cent of gross domestic product, for 2018-19, have been rendered obsolete by circumstances, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian told Business Standard in an exclusive interview, a day after presenting his latest Economic Survey. Subramanian indicated that while the upcoming budget 2018-19 will not be an outright populist document, fiscal targets have to be realistic. “The FRBM Panel’s roadmap has been rendered obsolete. The conditions were quite different when the report came out,” he said. The panel, headed by 15th Finance Commission chairman N K Singh, and which included Subramanian as a member, had submitted its report in April 2017. It had recommended a fiscal deficit target of 2.5 per cent ...

Modi pledged in 2015 to bring down corporate taxes over four years, but businesses are still waiting for a roadmap on how that will happen   Businesses waiting for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to follow through on a pledge to cut corporate taxes may need to wait a bit longer. In his last full union budget 2018 before 2019 elections, Modi is facing a revenue squeeze that may make it difficult to deliver on a promise to lower the basic corporate tax rate over time to 25 percent from 30 percent. It’s a catch-22 situation for the premier, who is also trying to lure foreign investors at a time when the US, UK and other countries are lowering business taxes. Here’s a look at Modi’s challenge ahead of the government’s budget 2018 on Thursday. Why Cut? Modi pledged in 2015 to bring down corporate taxes over four years, but businesses are still waiting for a roadmap on how that will happen. It’s part of his mission to improve India’s investment climate: he ...

There are concerns that the huge build-up of positions in equity derivatives could pose a systemic risk   Union budget 2018 : Ahead of Budget 2018, market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and stock exchanges are taking precautions, anticipating a significant run-up in the equity market. Sebi has asked brokers to collect higher margins from those with sizeable positions in futures and options. These include foreign institutions, wealthy investors and proprietary desks. There are concerns that the huge build-up of positions in equity derivatives could pose a systemic risk. Stock exchanges have asked brokers to mop up extra deposits from clients with significant exposure to derivatives. “In the joint meeting of exchanges and Sebi, it has been decided that markets should be alerted at different levels of MWPL utilisation so that investors can make an informed decision on whether to hold or square off their existing positions well before regula...

There may be a meta-preference manifesting itself in fertility-stopping rules, contingent on the sex of the last child, which notionally creates 'unwanted' girls, estimated at 21 mn, the Survey says   The Economic Survey 2018 reveals that Indian parents, still keen to have more and more male children, continue producing “until they have the desired number of sons”. The survey calls this phenomenon the son meta-preference, which involves parents adopting "fertility-stopping rules”, or having children until the desired number of sons are born. The country’s sex ratio, skewed in favour of males, has led to the identification of “missing” women. But there may be a meta-preference manifesting itself in fertility-stopping rules, contingent on the sex of the last child, which notionally creates “unwanted” girls, estimated at about 21 million, the Survey adds. “Consigning these odious categories to history soon should be society's objective,” notes the Survey. ...