Interim Budget 2019 PDF: Full text of Piyush Goyal's speech in Parliament; finance minister dangles pre-poll carrot for middle class ; download here

In a clear pre-poll sop for the middle class, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that the government proposes to raise the income tax exemption limit to Rs 5 lakh, but left the implementation to the next government in the full-fledged budget. It has also proposed to raise the standard deduction to Rs 50,000. Among the major sops, Goyal announced Rs 6,000 per annum direct cash transfer to farmers owning less than 2 hectares of land. The move, months before general elections, is likely to benefit 12 crore farmers. Rs 60,000 crore has also been set aside for MGNREGA, the rural employment scheme, with Piyush Goyal adding that the allocation can be increased further. The Finance Minister says a national cow commission for the welfare of cows would also be set up. The gratuity limit has also been increased to Rs 30 lakh. Goyal said the benefit of rollover of capital gains to be increased from investment in one residential house to that in two residential houses for a taxpayer having capital gains up to 2 crore rupees; this can be exercised once in a lifetime. Among other announcements, Mega Pension Yojana namely Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan, to provide assured monthly pension of 3000 rupees per month, with contribution of 100 rupees per month, for workers in unorganized sector after 60 years of age. He also told that Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana is training over 1 crore youths and said that the job seekers are the job creators. More than 70 percent of the beneficiaries of the PM Mudra Yojana are women and it additionally helps them set up businesses and other entrepreneurship related activities. He also said the definition of employment and self employment is changing now. Finance Minister said that the fiscal deficit will be at 3.4 percent of GDP this year. Download Interim Budget 2019 PDF here