Union Budget 2020
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman will address the media in Mumbai shortly. Follow the live updates here.
Nothing illustrates bureaucratic mangling of noble political intent better than the reform on ESOP-taxation, writes Raghav Bahl.
By playing the ostrich, we are refusing to see the solutions that stare us in the face, writes Ananth Narayan.
The worst fear of certain foreign portfolio investors has come true.
One proposal in Finance Bill 2020 quintessentially illustrates the perpetual tussle between the legislature and the judiciary.
Both FY20 and FY21 tax revenue estimates seem difficult to achieve, show past data.
The increased limit for corporate bonds came alongside a move to fully open up select government securities to foreign investors.
The tax revenue growth estimates are more realistic than we have seen in the past, says Credit Suisse’s Neelkanth Mishra.
Why Finance Minister’s new income tax regime will benefit benefit non-salaried taxpayers more than their salaried counterparts.
The Indian government has chosen to signal continuity of its reform agenda in this year’s Union Budget, says Ashima Goyal.
The market sentiment also depends on how foreign investors react to the Coronavirus outbreak in China, says Shah.
Cars are being taxed as if they are sin goods, says Maruti Suzuki’s Bhargava.
In the new regime, 5 percent tax is levied on an annual income between Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 5 percent.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s second budget in seven months disappointed investors.
The government hasn’t considered adjusted gross revenue dues from telecom firms in its receipts for this fiscal and the next.
There could be a stimulus of 0.4 percent of GDP if asset sales work out, says Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC.
The move is seen as a precursor to India getting its securities included in global bond indexes.
Returns on mutual funds may reduce as the government has proposed a tax on income distributed by asset managers to unit holders.
Why the new income tax regime will have little to no impact on life insurance sales.
Markets Misreading Extent Of Stimulus In Budget 2020, Says JP Morgan’s Jahangir Aziz
India’s budget offers a hodgepodge of half-measures that won’t end a slowdown.
The government’s move to limit its fiscal slippage to only 0.5 percent is a missed opportunity, says Indira Rajaraman.
Fall In Central Transfers To States A Risk To Growth, Say Economists.
Necessary clarification, if required, shall be proposed in the relevant provision of the law, the CBDT said.
India is looking to overseas funds to rescue its battered bond market, but relief may be slow to come.
Dividends earned by unitholders of InvITs and REITs to be taxed.
Modi’s budget is a lure for foreign capital. It doesn’t get to grips with India’s economic crisis or help Indians.
10% LIC Stake Sale Could Raise Rs 80,000-90,000 Crore, Says Former Top Bureaucrat
Morgan Stanley India’s Ridham Desai breaks down Budget 2020 and its impact on Indian markets.
Dear taxpayer, you’ve just been pranked by the Budget.
How two key amendments to the Finance Bill will impact NRIs and fuel prices.
The government will give Rs 2 lakh to eligible farmers after they repay any outstanding amount above Rs 2 lakh.
India was ranked 53 out of 115 countries in the Open Budget Index 2017 of the non-profit International Budget Partnership.
There is no reason why the shareholders of companies receiving dividends from foreign companies should have to pay higher tax.
Penalties that taxpayers will have to pay under the proposed amnesty law in case of appeals.
AIADMK govt bets again on flagship welfare schemes, presents populist budget
Between 2012 and 2013, foreign investment recorded a negative 36 percent growth, the minister said.
Finance Minister also pitched for rationalisation of GST rates once a year and not every three months as was the trend so far.
The finance minister is in Kolkata to discuss the government’s vision on the budget with the stakeholders of various sectors.
Follow live updates from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reply to the Motion of Thanks to the President’s address in the Lok Sabha
India’s budget offers a hodgepodge of half-measures that won’t end a slowdown.
Dividends earned by unitholders of InvITs and REITs to be taxed.
For the next 2020-21 fiscal, Moody’s lowered real GDP growth forecasts to 5.5 percent from 6.3 percent previous estimate.
Chakraborty said the Indian economy remains robust and more than meets the requirement of investment grade.
Why the new income tax regime will have little to no impact on life insurance sales.
Markets Misreading Extent Of Stimulus In Budget 2020, Says JP Morgan’s Jahangir Aziz
Returns on mutual funds may reduce as the government has proposed a tax on income distributed by asset managers to unit holders.
Modi’s budget is a lure for foreign capital. It doesn’t get to grips with India’s economic crisis or help Indians.
Modi’s government skips bank capital injection for first time. To sell stakes in two financial firms, raise deposit insurance.
Ten-year yields slid as much as 11 basis points to 6.49% on Monday before trading at 6.51%.
The move is seen as a precursor to India getting its securities included in global bond indexes.
There could be a stimulus of 0.4 percent of GDP if asset sales work out, says Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC.
The government hasn’t considered adjusted gross revenue dues from telecom firms in its receipts for this fiscal and the next.
Fall In Central Transfers To States A Risk To Growth, Say Economists.
Finance Minister cut personal income tax rates for those willing to sacrifice exemptions. But that may actually raise tax burden.
Budget 2020: Do Indian citizens residing and working in the UAE have to pay tax in India because they don’t pay any tax in UAE?
The new income tax regime will benefit taxpayers even if they are unable to avail any tax exemptions, says a government official.
About 600 million Indians are facing high-to-extreme water stress and the situation is set to worsen.
Fiscal deficit target for the coming fiscal year starting April 1 widened to 3.5%.
Morgan Stanley India’s Ridham Desai breaks down Budget 2020 and its impact on Indian markets.
An increase in fiscal deficit has never come without a crisis in the history of India, says S Naren.
Higher excise duty will force cigarette makers like ITC Ltd. to increase prices, hurting their volumes.
The government is invoking a rare ‘escape clause’ that allows it to expand its fiscal deficit target by 0.5 percentage points.
Here’s what brokerages had to say about Budget 2020.
The Budget has ‘ticked all the boxes’, the vice chairman of Niti Aayog said on the market’s negative reaction to Budget 2020.
The S&P BSE Sensex tumbled 2.4% to 39,735.5 at the close, also the steepest drop in more than three years.
Fifteenth Finance Commission’s Interim Report Calls For Greater Fiscal Clarity
Sitharaman said the new structure willbenefit taxpayers in certain brackets, and more clarifications will be issued, if needed.
There is no intention to tax global income of NRIs and only income generated in India will be taxed, said the Finance Minister.
Government aims to tax high net individuals who do not pay taxes by hopping between tax jurisdictions and avoid becoming resident.
10% LIC Stake Sale Could Raise Rs 80,000-90,000 Crore, Says Former Top Bureaucrat
ONGC, IOC and other oil PSUs will invest over Rs 98,521 for oil exploration, starting April 1.
The second tranche of debt-based exchange traded fund is likely in the current quarter, according to the Finance Minister.
That’s lower than the 1.52 trillion rupees the government estimates for the current year.
The government has raised fund allocation for the UIDAI by 17 percent to Rs 985 crore for the next fiscal starting April 1.
The government’s move to limit its fiscal slippage to only 0.5 percent is a missed opportunity, says Indira Rajaraman.
The government proposed a new levy of 1 percent TDS (tax deducted at source) on e-commerce transactions.
The government has not provided any large boost to schemes focused on creating jobs and providing services to rural India.
Arundhati Bhattacharya, Ananth Narayan and Saurabh Mukherjea discuss whether the budget has done enough.
While the new income tax regime grabbed headlines, the budget’s indirect tax measures are no less worthy of taking note of.
The new personal tax regime could have a bearing on insurance and the mutual fund industries, Shah said.
Foreign investors pumped more than Rs 12,000 crore into stock markets in January.
LIC may be listed in the second half of the next financial year, Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar said.
The Modi government offers an optional relief to income tax payers.
The central government announced tax relief for startups as part of its efforts to boost the ecosystem in the country.
No DDT, worried NRIs, remittance googly, Customs Act surprise and other corporate tax changes in Budget 2020.
It seems that the government is setting a direction where the old IT regime would be withdrawn gradually, writes Maulik Doshi.
Sending money abroad or visiting international destinations is set to become more expensive.
The government presented the budget for 2020-21 on Saturday
From income tax to fiscal deficit, here’s a look at the 10 key announcements made by the Finance Minister in Union Budget 2020-21.
Government wants to double farm income by 2022.
Former RBI Governor C Rangarajan says the fiscal deficit target will be difficult to meet.
The net tax revenue for FY21 is estimated at Rs 16.35 lakh crore.
The quantum of deposits insured in the event of a bank failure will be raised to Rs 5 lakh from Rs 1 lakh.
Dividend income will now be taxed only in the hands of investors.
This is the highest divestment target the government has ever set.
The NSE Nifty index fell 2.51 percent today, resulting in the erosion of nearly Rs 3.6 lakh crore in investor wealth.
Beneficiaries of PM Kisan will also be eligible for the Kisan Credit Card scheme.
The Amit Shah-led home ministry saw the steepest rise in fund allocation in Union Budget 2020-21.
The central government has proposed to raise funds by monetising highways by using data from the FASTag payments mechanism.
The government plans to increase investment limit of foreign portfolio investors in corporate bonds from 9 percent to 15 percent.
The finance minister emphasised that a huge employment opportunity exists for India’s youth in construction.
The finance minister said an amount of Rs 99,300 crore was allocated for the education sector.
Government plans to sell its remaining stake in IDBI Bank, which was bailed out by Life Insurance Corporation of India last year.
Sitharaman cut short her Budget speech as she felt unwell after speaking for 160 minutes in the Lok Sabha.
The government said it would sell a part of its holding in LIC though an initial public offering.
MTNL has reported losses in nine of the past 10 years and BSNL too has been ringing in losses since 2010.
India’s fiscal deficit settled at 3.8 percent in 2019-20 and will be targeted at 3.5 percent in 2020-21.
Live updates on how Sensex and Nifty are moving today, ahead of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2020-21.
Catch Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Union Budget 2020 decoded live here.
Government seeks extension of MSME restructuring guidelines by a year
This is a budget to boost incomes and enhance purchasing power: Nirmala Sitharaman.
The government may cut some subsidies and reallocate spending to sectors where it can help spur demand in the economy.
“Job creation is the single-most important focus that the budget should have,” says HDFC’s Keki Mistry.
GST collections for December, collected in January, rose 8.12% year-on-year to Rs 1,10,828 crore.
India’s annual budget on Saturday is PM Narendra Modi’s second opportunity in seven months to refresh policy priorities.
India’s economic growth is expected to “strongly rebound” to 6-6.5 percent in 2020-21 from 5 percent estimated in current fiscal.
From Creating 4 Crore Jobs To Thalinomics: What Economic Survey 2020 Told Us
India’s budget needs to recognize that loose fiscal policy cannot reverse structural damage, says Mihir Sharma.
Markets are pricing in LTCG tax dilution amid hightened expectations of income tax rationalisation, UBS’ Tanvee Gupta Jain says.
Economic Survey has proposed a new structure of disinvestment to maximise returns from public sector enterprises.
Public sector banks continue to play an important role in the economy but are riddled with inefficiencies, says the survey.
India needs tax collection to grow 119 percent between December and March. That is unlikely to happen.
Fiscal prudence vs spurring consumption—what will prevail over the decision to reduce personal income tax rates?
Ideally, our growth cycle currently may well require lower rates as well as higher public spending, writes Suyash Choudhary.
Jean Drèze’s case for enlarging the NREGA budget is not just that it would help to prevent the economy from sliding into a ditch.
If cooperative federalism like Odisha’s is adopted across India’s states, it is possible to imagine an expanded PM-Kisan scheme.
Tax cuts are often regarded as reform. True reform needs to encompass several other issues, write Dinesh Kanabar & Saurabh Shah.
The government is looking to trim spending by about Rs 2 lakh crore but where will the cuts come from?
Ahead of Budget 2020, a look back at the big ideas that worked, the ones that flopped and those that created much controversy.
If PM Modi genuinely wants to rejuvenate the economy, he’s got to create ‘TRUST’ for private enterprise, writes Raghav Bahl.
The government is yet to receive annual dividend payouts from state-run oil and gas firms.
The government needs to come clean about its failures to salvage the economy from the distraction of identity politics.
Growth-enhancing measures are needed to get India’s potential growth rate of 7-8 percent per annum: NITI Aayog vice chairman.
The government may also allocate Rs 15,000 crore for farm insurance scheme, up from Rs 14,000 crore in the current year.
A custom Bloomberg index of nine roadbuilders is up 8.1% this month, versus the 0.7% drop in the main S&P BSE Sensex index.
Would lead to improved investor confidence and attract more investment in natural gas infrastructure, says industry.
He claimed that the PM and his ministers seem to be cut off from reality.
The need of the hour is GDP growth and structural reforms, Max Life Insurance’s Mihir Vora says.
We need regulations to cease treating resident Indians as secondary citizens in the investment profession, writes Rohan Agarwal.
Here’s a sector-wise list of what analysts expect from Budget 2020.
Lower taxes amid weaker growth have meant that the government may invoke the ‘escape clause’ provided by the FRBM Review Panel.
Here’s a look at five key people in the government who are working behind the scenes.
The government is working on guidelines for tax authorities so that they don’t challenge a resolution plan approved by the NCLT.
A “credible” fiscal deficit target, “where numbers are believable”, will be a positive for Indian markets, says Marcellus’ Gubbi.
Market will be watching for action on two specific measures on the taxation front, including companies and individuals, it said.
The company has also sought extension of FAME-II benefits to electric bicycles, says company.
Most brokerages expect some relief on the personal income tax front to boost consumption.
The central government budgeted its net tax revenue at Rs 16.50 lakh crore for this fiscal.
The country’s crude and manufactured fertiliser imports grew by 8.47 percent to $6.2 billion so far this fiscal.
High GST rates on clean fuels, conversions kits in variance to the government’s green mobility push: Indian Auto LPG Coalition.
The government spent Rs 5.46 lakh crore as establishment expenditure and Rs 6.60 lakh crore as interest payments in 2019-20.
Mahindra Group’s VS Parasarathy suggests a fund of funds where both public and private players can contribute to growth revival.
Fiscal choices are never easy in the best of political-economy contexts. In these difficult times, there are no easy options left.
The industry body also asked the government to consider increasing the income criteria under PMAY scheme.
Is It Time To Reset India’s Fiscal Roadmap Yet Again?
Here are the key areas where market participants are looking for action, along with potential impact.
He also slammed critics of National Popular Register exercise, saying that it was done during the Congress-led government as well.
The triple challenge is to present a budget that will help regain investor, business and consumer confidence, says Nandita Parker.
From banks to farmers to the property market, the gains from India’s budget in July haven’t yet panned out as expected.
A prolonged cash squeeze makes it tough for firms to borrow at home.
“Such a move will have disastrous effects on the Indian aviation industry,” Association of Private Airport Operators said.
The government faces tough choices: To cut tax or increase spending? And how?
The government needs to put aside its fiscal discipline for may be 24 months to jump-start the economy, says Bajaj.
The second Budget of the Modi 2.0 government will be presented on Feb. 1.
Stainless steel industry seeks zero duty on ferro-nickel, scrap in upcoming Budget
GST on the print media stands at 5 percent whereas news broadcasters are charged 18 percent GST.
RBI should “seriously think” of providing liquidity to NBFCs against assets held by lenders, SBI economists say in a budget note.
Punjab has cut expenditure, staggered salary payouts to deal with a revenue shortfall, says the state’s finance minister.
China’s decision to restrict scrap metal purchases flooded the global market with supplies. Now India wants a tax hike on imports.
Proposals are aimed at bringing parity with other investment instruments and making mutual funds more investor-friendly.
What the Indian government should do if a stagflationary situation does indeed arise in 2020. By Sabyasachi Kar.
Proposals may form part of the federal budget to be unveiled on Feb. 1.
Former economic affairs secretary Subhash Chandra Garg details what he believes is the ‘real’ fiscal deficit.
TVS Group’s Venu Srinivasan, DCM Shriram’s Ajay Shriram and Hero Enterprises’ Sunil Munjal stress on what the budget needs to be.
In the last Budget, the government had increased the import duty on the yellow metal to 12.5 percent.
India’s industrial production grew by 0.6 percent in April-November 2019, indicating the woes faced by the manufacturing sector.
Infusion will not only improve their financial health but facilitate merger announced in the Budget 2018-19.
The industry has also asked increase in depreciation rate on passenger vehicle and two-wheelers to 25 percent.
The primary aluminium industry is facing severe threat from the increasing import of aluminium scrap.
India is considering further opening up its insurance and aviation sectors to foreign investors.
Shortfall will add to financial problems of the treasury, which is already grappling with lower-than-expected tax collections.
Fundamentals of the economy are strong and it has the capacity to bounce back, PM Modi says at a pre-budget meeting at NITI Aayog.
BloombergQuint speaks to economists to see what they believe the government should prioritise to best support the economy.
Public sector banks may also look for divesting or selling their non-core business as part of fundraising exercise during 2020-21.
The session is likely to continue till April.
Government needs to increase budgetary allocation in the upcoming budget to around Rs 100 billion for the industry, says report.
The economic slowdown and lower-than-expected revenue collections leaves her with little fiscal room to effect an income tax cut.
Discussions were held on challenges faced in providing quality of water, sanitation, solid waste management and drainage.
There were also suggestions with regard to ways to enhance rural demand.
Trade unions have sought increase in number of minimum work days under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
This is the fourth pre-Budget meeting on agriculture and agro-processing sectors.
The fintech industry has sought incentives from the government to set up data centres to boost digital payment in rural areas.
FM to hold pre-Budget consultations with stakeholders beginning Monday, and will continue till Dec. 23, according to sources.
The posts of expenditure secretary and joint secretary have been vacant for almost three months.
The clamour for changes in income tax rates grew louder following corporate tax cuts and amid an economic slowdown in India.
Union Budget 2020-21 will have to address critical issues pertaining to the slowdown in India and subdued revenue collections.