Budget 2019 LIVE Updates: At a press conference, former finance minister P Chidambaram claimed that the Union Budget was 'bereft of any reforms'. 'The most disappointed person must be the chief economic adviser. The only investment-related proposal was the to increase the FPI percent. The Modi government treats India as one big state government. Apparently the prime minister believe that only his government can deliver basic public goods and services. It is not good to reduce state government to local administrations,' he said.
Union Budget 2019 LATEST Updates: At a press conference, former finance minister P Chidambaram claimed that the Union Budget was "bereft of any reforms". "The most disappointed person must be the chief economic adviser. The only investment-related proposal was the to increase the FPI percent. The Modi government treats India as one big state government. Apparently the prime minister believe that only his government can deliver basic public goods and services. It is not good to reduce state government to local administrations," he said.
Congress communications in-charge Randeep Surjewala lashed out at the Centre on Twitter and called Budget 2019 a “‘betrayal’ of India’s youth”. He also claimed that the "real fiscal deficit" is estimated at 4.7 percent, and not 3.3 percent, as said by Nirmala Sitharaman. "Expenses on rural development, infrastructure, food subsidy were not included as part of Fiscal Deficit. The real fiscal deficit is estimated at 4.7 percent. Skulduggery of figures?" he wrote.
The market plummeted soon after the trends of the Union Budget became apparent. Sensex dropped down by almost 250 points, while Nifty neared 11,826 points.
Nirmala Sitharaman said, "A lower rate of 25 percent is currently applicable to companies having an annual turnover of upto Rs 250 crores. I propose to include all companies having an annual income of over Rs 400 crore." She added that this will bring in 99.3 percent of all companies into the tax net and leave out only 0.4 percent companies
Nirmala Sitharaman thanked taxpayers who as responsible citizens for their valuable contribution through taxes for all-round development of the country
The government proposes to consider issuing Aadhaar cards to NRIs with Indian passports in India without having to wait for the necessary 180 days, she says
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that although zero budget farming is not a new thing, she would like to shift focus on going back to the roots and reassess the implementation of zero budget farming. She also said that ten thousand new farmer producer organisations (FPOs) will come up for ensuring market reach for farmers
India is quite capable to achieve its goal of becoming $5 trillion economy in next few years, Nirmala Sitharaman said adding that India has already become the sixth largest economy of the world. She said that as of now, India is only third, after US and China, as far as purchase capacity is concerned.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rises to present her maiden Budget Speech.
Petrol and diesel prices remain unchanged across the country for the third successive day on Friday. In Delhi, a litre of petrol today costs Rs 70.51 while diesel costs Rs 64.33 per litre, no change compared with Thursday’s price.
As the first woman finance minister in 45 years Nirmala Sitharaman has traded in the iconic "budget briefcase" for a budget bahi khata. Traditionally, the finance minister arrives at the Parliament with a briefcase, which contains the budget document. However, in 2019, Sitharaman arrived with the budget document wrapped in a red cloth. Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said, "It is in Indian tradition. It symbolises our departure from slavery of Western thought. It is not a budget but a bahi khata (ledger)".
In a departure from the norm, Nirmala Sitharaman is seen carrying a red bag with the Budget instead of a briefcase.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has handed over a copy of the Union Budget to the President.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has reached her office at the Finance Ministry. She will deliver the keenly watched Budget statement at 11 am in Lok Sabha
A mini-stimulus to take the economy out of five-year low alongside giving some tax relief to common man may be on the cards, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman does a tightrope walk balancing the needs of the economy and fiscal constraints in her maiden Budget.
When India's first full-time Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents her maiden Union Budget 2019 on Friday at 11 am in the Parliament, she will also be facing huge challenges ahead with the country staring at the worst unemployment crisis in the past 45 years.
The Finance Minister will also be under pressure to spend more to revive the slowing economy while finding out resources for welfare schemes.
Sitharaman will begin her Budget speech at 11 am. Doordarshan will live telecast Budget 2019 and it will also be available on the Youtube channel.

File image of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Reuters.
This is the first Budget to be presented under the Narendra Modi 2.0 government after it was re-elected to power following the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Sitharaman, who earlier held the portfolios of commerce and defence ministries in the previous Modi government, will have to find resources for welfare schemes declared by the Narendra Modi government, including Rs 87,000 crore ($12.6 billion) for a new measure to support farmers.
Above all, she will have to do all this while keeping the fiscal deficit below 3.4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Economic Survey 2019 will be tabled today (Thursday), a day before the Union Budget is presented in the Parliament.
The Economic Survey has been prepared by the new Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian and is slated to be presented around noon to both the Houses of the Parliament.
The Economic Survey can be downloaded in the PDF format through this link: http://mofapp.nic.in:8080/economicsurvey/. It will be uploaded once it is presented.
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