New Delhi, January 31
Before presenting the Interim Budget-2019-20, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday began reading out his interim Budget speech. He started the speech by wishing a speedy recovery to Union minister Arun Jaitley.
LIVE UPDATES
*Vande Bharat Express will provide speed, service and safety to citizens and will give boost to Make In India: FM
*Urgent steps needed to boost domestic oil and gas production to cut imports: FM
*99.54 per cent of all returns were accepted without scrutiny, transforming I-T department, return to be processed in 24 hours, processed simultaneously
*Capital expenditure programme of Railways at all-time high of Rs 1.58 lakh cr in next FY: FM
*We have eliminated all unmanned railway crossings in the country: FM
*In next two years even tax returns selected for scrutiny will be done without any personal interface, electronically, says FM
*Simplification of direct tax system to benefit taxpayers; direct tax reduced and tax interface made simpler and faceless to make life easier
*Substantial hike in military service pay has been announced
*Tax collection increased to Rs 12 lakh crore this year, returns filed to 6.85 crore
*Rs 35,000 cr given under OROP in last three years
*Defence budget increased to over Rs 3 lakh cr in 2019-20
*27 km of highways built each day, projects stuck for decades completed; SagarMala will help faster handling of import and export cars
*Nine priority areas identified; National Artificial Intelligence Portal to be developed soon
*Indian Railways has witnessed its safest year in history; all unmanned crossings on broad gauge network have been eliminated
*India is fastest highways developer in the world, says FM
*Rs 1 crore loan can now be obtained under 59 minutes: FM
*Country now has 100 operational airports; passenger traffic has doubled in last five years
*Over 1 crore youth trained under skill initiatives of government, says FM
*India has become second largest hub of startups
*Under the Mudra scheme, govt has sanctioned 15.56 lakh loans amounting Rs 7.23 lakh crore
*75 pc of women beneficiaries under Mudra Yojana, 26 weeks’ maternity leave and Pradhan Mantri Matritva Yojana are all empowering women
*Out of 8 cr free LPG connections under Ujjwala, 6 cr connections to poor women have already been provided
*Ujjwala Yojana providing free cooking gas connection is a remarkable success story
*More than 70 per cent of MUDRA yojana beneficiaries are women
*Gratuity limit increased from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 30 lakh
*High growth, formalisation of economy has resulted in increased EPFO membership by 2 cr in last two years
*Farmers affected by severe natural calamity will get 2 pc interest subvention on all rescheduled crop loans and additional 3 per cent on timely repayment
*High growth and formalisation of economy has led to rise in EPFO membership by 2 cr in last two years
*Farmers hit by natural calamities to get 2 per cent interest subvention; 3 per cent more on timely repayment of loans
*2 pc interest subvention to farmers involved in animal husbandry and fishery
*Govt to provide Rs 750 crore in FY to support animal husbandry and fishing
*There is need for structured income support for poor, landless farmers to meet input cost
*Govt to implement special strategy for uplift of nomadic tribes
*Govt has fixed MSP for 22 notified crops at 50 per cent higher than cost of production
*Pension scheme for unorganised sector workers to be implemented from this fiscal
*Cheaper drugs being provided through Jan Aushadi stores: FM
*AIIMs established or operating in country, of which 14 sanctioned since 2014. Another to be set up in Haryana
*10 lakh patients have been treated so far under Ayushman Bharat scheme, world’s largest health care programme
*Use of LED bulbs saved power bill of about Rs 50,000 crore, says FM
*As many as 1.53 crore houses constructed during 2014-18 under Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana
*143 crore LED bulbs were made available for lower and middle class families
*Farmers to be provided Rs 6,000 per year in three instalments, to be fully funded by the central government
*We plan to provide urban facilities in rural areas while preserving ‘soul of village’, says FM
*Construction of rural roads tripled under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana: FM
*2.5 cr families were without electricity in 2014; we have provided power to almost all families: FM
*Govt spent Rs 1.7 lakh crore to supply food grains at cheaper price to poor in 2018-19 as against Rs 92,000 crore in 2013-14
*Allocation to MNREGA hiked to Rs 60,000 crore for 2019-20
*Govt announces the Pradhan Mantri Samman Nidhi for small and marginal farmers; farmers to get Rs 6,000 per year
*Govt has provided 10 per cent reservation for economically weaker section; job quota to provide 2 lakh seats in educational institutes
*We have worked to bridge the urban-rural divide
*About 5.4 lakh villages made open defecation-free
*Poor have the first right over nation’s resources
*I hope other banks too would soon come out of PCA framework
*Realty Law RERA has helped in bringing transparency in real estate sector
*India has achieved over 98 per cent rural sanitation coverage: FM
*We have run a corruption-free government
*Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code helping in recovery of non-performing loans. Even big businessmen are now worried about loans: FM
*BoI, OBC and Bank of Maharashtra have been removed from the PCA framework of RBI
*3 lakh crore recovered from big corporate loan defaulters: FM
*Our govt had the guts to ask RBI to look at bad loans and present correct picture to nation: FM
*We have stopped culture of phone banking, says FM referring to allegations of rampant loans over phone during UPA regime.
*We have liberalised FDI allowing more investment through automatic route
*We have undertaken path-breaking structural reforms by introducing GST and other reforms
*Fiscal deficit will be 3.4 per cent of GDP; Current Account Deficit to be 2.5 per cent of GDP
*Current Account Deficit likely to be 2.5 pc of GDP this year
*India attracted USD 239 bn in FDI in last five years
*If we had not controlled inflation our families would have been spending 35-40 per cent more on daily use items
*NDA govt contained double digit inflation; Govt has broken the back of high inflation
*India is fastest growing major economy in world; GDP growth in last 5 yrs higher than under any previous govt
*India has been recognised as brightest spot in the world in the past 5 years
*We have got decisive mandate to continue structured reforms. We have reversed policy paralysis
*We are moving towards realising New India by 2022: FM
*Goyal begins interim budget speech, wishes Union minister Arun Jaitley speedy recovery and good health
*Finance Minister Piyush Goyal rises to present Interim Budget for 2019-20
*Cabinet approves Interim Budget for 2019-20. PTI