Budget 2019 LIVE: Petrol, Diesel, Gold Get Costlier; No Income Tax Cheer For Middle Class, FM Nirmala Sitharaman Announces Tax Benefits On Loans

Background

Budget 2019 Live Updates: Newly appointed Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first budget of the new government on Friday, outlining the priorities of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his second term after a massive election victory. This is the 89th Union budget, which is the financial statement of the government, detailing its revenue and expenditure in the past, as well as estimated spending and projections for the coming year.

It is also be the maiden budget for Sitharaman, who became the second woman finance minister after Indira Gandhi and first first full-time woman finance minister in the history of independent India, who will today present the full-year budget for the year ending March 2020.

In the much-anticipated Union Budget, Sitharaman laid down the Modi 2.0 government's road map for the economy and the nation in the next five years. 

The Budget speech began at 11:00 am today and the finance minister addressed to the speaker of Lok Sabha. 

The Finance Minister on Thursday tabled in Parliament the pre-Budget Economic Survey for 2018-19, which projected the state of the economy and outlined its challenges. The survey was released by Chief Economic Adviser Krishnamurthy Subramanian yesterday.

13:25 PM (IST)  •  05 Jul 2019

FM Nirmala Sitharaman: To provide further impetus to affordable housing, additional deduction of 1.5 lakh rupees on interest paid on loans borrowed upto 31 March 2020 for purchase of house up to Rs 45 lakhs

13:08 PM (IST)  •  05 Jul 2019

FM Nirmala Sitharaman: I propose to increase special additional excise duty and road and infrastructure cess each one by 1 rupee a litre on petrol and diesel

13:08 PM (IST)  •  05 Jul 2019

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: To resolve the so-called Angel Tax issue, the startups & their investors who file requisite declarations&provide information in their returns will not be subjected to any kind of scrutiny in respect of valuations of share premiums.

13:07 PM (IST)  •  05 Jul 2019

FM Sitharaman: As I stated earlier, we have taken a slew of measures to ease burden on small and medium earners. Those having annual income up to Rs 5 lakhs are not required to pay any income tax. We are thankful to tax payers who play an important role in nation building

12:58 PM (IST)  •  05 Jul 2019

To discourage business payments in cash, I propose to levy 2% TDS on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs 1 cr in a year fr… https://t.co/3ma55KPcTd