Alstom's India and South Asia Managing Director Alain Spohr said: "The Finance Minister has taken a holistic approach to prime up India's growth engine. This budget lays down a clear path India needs to take to become a $5 trillion economy."
In a bid to lower domestic interest rates, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed to raise a part of the government's gross borrowings from overseas.
The first Budget of Modi 2.0 government has laid huge emphasis on investment and consumption to realise the dream of 'New India' making it a $ 5 trillion economy in the next few years, but mobilising funds remains a challenge for it in the wake of global headwinds and domestic slowdown.
"Strategic disinvestment of select CPSEs will continue to be a priority. Such disinvestment of Air India will be re-initiated. The disinvestment target for 2019-20 is Rs 1.05 lakh crore," said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Budget in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The central govt employees were expecting an announcement regarding their long-pending demand of hike in minimum pay and fitment factor beyond 7th Pay Commission recommendations in this budget. However, according to reports, there is no increase in the minimum wages of central govt employees in the Budget 2019.
Railways has got a budgetary allocation of Rs 65,837 crore and the highest ever outlay for capital expenditure amounting to Rs 1.60 lakh crore from Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget. Last year, the outlay for the railways was Rs 1.48 lakh crore while the Budget allocation was Rs 55,088 crore.
To improve the quality of train travel and services, the Modi government will build world-class modern train sets, including more 'Train 18s' and 'Train 20'. The trains will replace Rajdhani and Shatabdi Express by 2020. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today allocated more than Rs 3,000 crore for rail passenger amenities in the 2019-2020 Budget, an around 200 per cent rise from the last fiscal.
Commenting on the Budget 2019, Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Friday said, people are unhappy. “People had expectations from Budget 2019, but they're unhappy. It's against development. They promised growth in the farming sector, which remained false. Farmers are not getting MSP, they are in drastic condition. There is no pro-farmers thing in budget,” said the 22nd chief minister of Karnataka.
Budget 2019-20 happened to be the first of the Modi 2.0 government. And as per the size of the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) victory over its opponents, Sitharaman's maiden Budget speech was a giant-sized bag of chocolates -- a mix of all flavours (read: some might not be your favourite).
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday in her maiden budget speech has an announcement that might not be music for the middle-class consumers who buy gold for various reasons. The government has increased customs duty on gold and other precious metals to 12.5 per cent from the existing 10 per cent, said Finance Minister in the Lok Sabha.
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah further said that the Budget for "new India" has set the stage for fulfilling collective dreams of water for every citizen, ensuring electricity connectivity across India and boosting manufacturing especially in sunrise sectors. "The Budget will enable India to become a more vibrant start-up hub."
Nitish Kumar also praised Sitharaman's target to take India's economy to $5 trillion. "This budget is good for the people, particularly the poor and farmers," he said.
Post considering local sales tax or value-added tax (VAT), which is charged after adding central excise duty on base price, the increase in petrol price would be over Rs 2.5 per litre and that on diesel would be Rs 2.3.
Sitharaman hiked tax on petrol and diesel, raised import duty on gold, levied an additional surcharge on super rich and brought a tax on high-value cash withdrawals as she sought to spur growth with reduction in corporate tax and sops to housing sector, startups and electric vehicles.
Sitharaman made the announcement while presenting the Union Budget 2019-20 in the Parliament. "To popularise sports at all levels, a National Sports Education Board for development of sportspersons will be set up under Khelo India," the Finance Minister said.
The All-India Motor Transport Congress also alleged that there is a move to make way for foreign players into the industry through such moves.
The finance minister further proposed to "initiate steps towards creating an electronic fundraising platform – a social stock exchange - under the regulatory ambit of SEBI for listing social enterprises and voluntary organisations working for the realisation of a social welfare objective so that they can raise capital as equity, debt or as units like a mutual fund".
The farming sector looked upto the Bharatiya Janata Party for its promise of allocating Rs 10,000 crore for providing infrastructure like storage and marketing for small fishermen. Presenting the Union Budget for 2019-20, Sitharaman said the government proposes Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana to address the critical infrastructure gap in the fisheries sector.
Presenting her maiden budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said steps need to be taken to bring capital markets closer to the people and proposed raising the threshold for minimum public shareholding from 25 per cent to 35 per cent.
Presenting her maiden budget at the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday announced a slew of steps to boost India's infrastructure including a budget allocation for 1,25,000 km of rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Read on to know the top 10 announcements from Budget 2019-20.
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