Union Budget 2021 Live Updates: FM Concludes Her Speech

Markets Cheer Budget 2021; Sensex Zooms 1900 Points

The Sensex has surged 1,200 points following the close of the Union Budget speech.

Finance Minister now concludes her speech.

Custom duty on cotton raised to 10 per cent from 0 per cent.

We are rationalizing custom duty on gold and silver to bring it down: FM

Custom duty on Naptha reduced.

Custom duty on select iron and steel items reduced.

To review more than 400 old custom duty exemptions through extensive consultations: FM

Claiming tax holiday extended by 1 year to March 31, 2022 for start-ups: FM

FM reduces tax burden on senior citizens above 75 years. Pensioners over 75 years of age are exempt from filing returns.

Advance tax on dividends would now be made payable only on receiving dividends.

To set up faceless dispute resolution system for small tax payers: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

The tax assessment cases for tax claims can now be re-opened only upto three years in place of six years: FM

Fiscal deficit for 2021-22 is pegged at 6.8%: FM

In 2020-21 the fiscal deficit is pegged at 9.5% of GDP.

A special scheme to benefit tea workers in Assam and Bengal to be launched: FM

100 new Sainik schools to be set up in partnership with NGOs: FM

I propose money to set-up a Central University in Leh: FM

Rs 15,700 crores to be provided for MSME this year. This is more than double that of last year: FM

One nation one ration card being implemented. Remaining 4 states to be integrated shortly.

A multi-purpose sea weed farm in Tamil Nadu.

5 fishing hubs to be developed: FM

Rights to property owners in villages - to cover all states and UTs: FM

A total of Rs 75,060 crores was paid to farmers in 2020-21 for procuring wheat.

The MSP has under gone sea-change. Prices across commodities has gone up nearly 1.5 times: FM

2 PSU banks and 1 general insurance company to be privatised.

The Nifty and Sensex have soared with the Nifty up 263 points and Sensex up 800 points.

In 2021-22 IPO of LIC: FM

Deposit insurance - had gone up from 1 lakh to 5 lakh for bank depositors. Streamline the provision so that it extends to banks freezing their deposits for some time: FM

A Fintech Hub at GIFT ISC to be created: FM

100 more districts and 1 crore more users to be targetted: FM

Private sector participation in ports: FM

Power distribution companies would face competition from a monopoly status so as to provide alternative power distribution to consumers: FM

FM says that 8,500 km of highways will be awarded by March 2022. 11,000 km of national highway corridor will be completed.

Rs 1,10,055 crores for Railways has been allocated for Railways with 1,07,700 crores for capital expenditure for Railways.

A western dedicated freight corridor and Eastern dedicated freight corridor to be completed this year.

To further augment road infra, road corridors are being planned: FM

Capital expenditure at Rs 5.54 lakh crores, up 35.4% from last year.

A bill for development financial institution for infrastructure to be launched. A lending portfolio of Rs 5 lakh crores likely: FM

To enable textile to be globally competitive, textile parks would be launched. 7 textile parks likely.

The Budget 2021-22 would provide Rs 35,000 crores for Covid vaccine and a committment for more: FM

Preventive, curative and well-being are three areas of healthcare, says FM. She announces Rs 64,000 crore for healthcare scheme.

Budget rests on 6 pillars - the 1st pillar is health & well being and taking a holistic health approach: FM Nirmala Sitharaman

The Union Budget comes at a time when India is battling the coronavirus pandemic and the economy is reeling under the aftereffects of the lockdown.

This Budget will also be a Digital Budget, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman

In May 2020, the govt announced the Atmanirbhar Bharat package, followed by two more packages during the year to sustain the economic recovery: FM Sitharaman

The Finance Minister has begun her Budget Speech in the midst of ruckus in the Lok Sabha.

The budget is likely to allocate more resources for the healthcare sector. Health Insurance related tax benefits cannot be ruled out.

Markets are going into the Budget speech rather strong. The Nifty is up 107 points, while the Sensex near 400 points.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman and MoS Anurag Thakur arrive at the Parliament for Cabinet meeting on Budget 2021.

Nirmala Sitharaman will replace the 'bahi khata' with tablet as Union budget goes digital.

It is highly possible that we may see recapitalization of public sector banks being announced. There was no such announcement last year and given the Covid-19 stress something may come through.

The MSME sector has been among the worst impacted due to Covid 19. It's likely that they may see some sops in the Budget to relieve pain.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, accompanied by MoS Anurag Thakur, leave the Ministry of Finance ahead of the Budget presentation.

Benchmark indices opened 1 per cent higher, with the Nifty up 134 points in early trade. Global cues too particularly from Asia were strong.

MoS Finance Anurag Thakur says that Budget 2021 would be in accordance with people's expectations.

The fiscal deficit is likely to be budgeted at 5 to 5.5% for the year 2020-21.

Revenue expenditure which accounts for around 85% of the total expenditure is expected to increase to Rs.27-28 lakh crores which would be a 6% increase from the budgeted increase of the preceding year.

Markets are likely to open stronger ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget. The Sensex has lost more than 7% in 6 trading sessions ahead of the Budget.

There is speculation that the government may introduce corona cess in the Union Budget to boost sagging finances. The probability cannot be ruled out at all.

The fiscal deficit for 2020-21 is likely yo be projected beyond 7%. It would be interesting to watch for 2021-22 numbers.

Of the last 10 budgets, the stock market has closed lower six times. It would be interesting to see how things pan out on Monday.

The BSE Sensex lost almost 7% this week ahead of the Union Budget.

“Bangladesh seems poised to emerge as a dominant exporter as its exports posted an impressive compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.6 percent during 2011-2019, higher than 0.9 percent for India, and 0.4 percent for the world. As a result, Bangladesh witnessed its share in world exports increase from 0.1 percent in 2011 to 0.3 percent in 2019,” said the Economic survey on Friday.

Comparison of Thali costs showed that in 2020-21 (Jun-Dec 2020), the most expensive Veg thali in the rural areas was in Andaman & Nicobar Islands (Rs 38.7) while the cheapest in rural areas was in Uttar Pradesh (Rs 23.1). In terms of Non-Veg thali during the same period, the most expensive was in Arunachal Pradesh (Rs 48.5) while cheapest was in Chandigarh (Rs 29.9) in rural areas.

India is expected to witness the current account surplus during the current financial year after a gap of 17 years.

Economic Survey 2021 said that agriculture is set to cushion the shock of the pandemic on the economy in 2020-21 with a growth of 3.4%- resulting in an increase in its share in GDP to 19.9% in 2020-21 from 17.8% in 2019-20. This indicates that agricultural activities for rabi harvesting and kharif sowing were largely unaffected by the COVID-induced lockdown.

Gross Value Added (GVA) growth is pegged at -7.2% in 2020-21 as against 3.9% in 2019-20.

The new farm laws are designed and intended primarily to benefit small and marginal farmers who constitute 85% of total farmers, the Economic Survey 2021 said, adding that the laws will empower farmers in their engagement with processors, wholesalers, aggregators, large retailers and provide a level-playing field.

Although India has performed above expectation on innovation w.r.t. its level of development, India lags behind most other large economies (top ten in terms of GDP current US$) on most indicators of innovation, says survey.

"This path would entail a growth in real GDP by 2.4 percent over the absolute level of 2019-20 – implying that the economy would take two years to reach and go past the pre-pandemic level. Key role of the government is to actively shape the structure of the healthcare market," the Survey reads.

Policy focus does not imply that re-distributive objectives are unimportant but that redistribution is only feasible in a developing economy if the size of the economic pie grows, says Economic survey 2021.

“Never in the history of sovereign credit ratings has the 5th largest economy been rated as the lowest rung of investment grade (BBB -). India’s fiscal policy must not remain beholden to a noisy, biased measure of India’s fundamentals. India’s forex reserves can cover an additional 2.8 standard deviation negative event. It is imperative that sovereign credit rating methodology be made more transparent, less subjective,” Economic Survey 2021 says.

The Economic Survey 2020-21 tabled by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that India's GDP (gross domestic product) is seen growing at 11% in the financial year 2021-22.

Benchmark indices have lost more than 5% ahead of the Union Budget announcements. There is a possibility that there could be some cess that is levied on corporate tax, which could hit earnings.

We expect the governments subsidy bill for 2021-22 to increase by around 4 to 5% to Rs.2.7 lakh crores, driven by an increase in food subsidy.

Any cess levied on corporate tax maybe a dampener for the stock markets. Remember, India drastically reduced corporate tax rates, which led to a huge spike in the stock markets.

Stock markets are trading flat ahead of the Economic Survey. The Nifty is up almost 28 points, while the Sensex is up 74 points. The Nifty has shed near 5 per cent in the last few trading sessions.

The Economic Survey is likely to give an indication of where we are headed in terms of growth.