Indian Union Budget 2018 live updates

Here are the live updates on Union Budget 2018:

4.08pm: Finance minister Arun Jaitley addressed a press conference. “The Budget blends fiscal prudence with the requirement and needs of the economy today,” says the finance minister.

4pm: “Like previous years, it (this year’s budget) will help in bringing a positive change in the lives of farmers and poor and thereby accelerate the growth of villages and the country,” says Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh.

3.58pm: Shares ended lower for a third straight session on Thursday, after the Union Budget set a capital gains tax on long-term equity investments, although investors welcomed higher spending in key areas of the economy such as agriculture.

3.22pm: “Keeping focus on ‘ease of living’, the budget has kept people of all segments in mind,” says Jitendra Singh, MoS, PMO.

3.12pm: “In the first four Budgets, I had a series of structural changes... This is the year of consolidation,” says finance minister Arun Jaitley.

3.10pm: “Agriculture needed support; rural India needed support; economically weaker people needed support... We have tried to fill in the blanks,” says finance minister Arun Jaitley.

3.05pm: “This Budget has potential -- it strengthens infrastructure, backs rural areas and other sectors,” says finance minister Arun Jaitley.

3.02pm: “There is a positive impact (of the GST) on personal income tax and corporate income,” says finance minister Arun Jaitley.

2.56pm: Duties on petrol, diesel rejigged; basic excise duty lowered by Rs 2 per litre, Rs 6 additional excise duty abolished, but Rs 8 a litre road cess introduced.

2.54pm: “The income tax entry rate of 5% is the lowest in the world. So there was no chance of reducing rates anymore,” says finance minister Arun Jaitley.

2.53pm: The details of the National Health Protection Scheme will be worked out by the health ministry.

2.51pm: “If we can make this (NHPS) successful, then the world will know: Whether Obamacare was successful or not, Modicare was,” says finance minister Arun Jaitley.

2.39pm: “How far is equitable to allow the rich to go tax-free,” says finance minister Arund Jaitley in interview to Doordarshan.

2.35pm: “It’s a balanced Budget which is for every section of the society, especially the focus on farmers and health services of the poor. The economy will also get a boost,” says railway minister Piyush Goyal.

2.23pm: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath says out of 24 new medical colleges, eight will open in Uttar Pradesh. There are provisions to build infrastructure and relief has been given to salaried class.

2.19pm: “In the 1 hour 45 minute speech, 1 hour was for the poor, this is indeed historic. The Opposition has become too pessimistic,” says Union minister MJ Akbar.

2.04pm: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav tweets: “The Budget brings disappointment to poor-farmer-labourer; brings exasperation to unemployed youth; and is a slap in the face of traders, women, salaried class, and the general public. This is the destructive budget of the arrogant government that has ignored troubles of people. Even in its last budget, the BJP showed that it favours only the rich. Now, people will answer back.”

1.56pm:The finance minister has tried to make improvements for farmers but the problems of farmers and rural people are enormous. The measures may not be sufficient,” says former PM HD Dewe Gowda.

1.54pm: “Under the Prime Minister Gram Sadak Yojana, there will also be work to connect villages to rural Haat, higher education centres and hospitals,” says PM Modi.

1.49pm: “For women, for more employment opportunities and increased take-home salaries, the EPF rate has been reduced to 8.33%,” says PM Modi.

1.36pm: “I congratulate the finance minister for the decision regarding MSP. I am sure it will help farmers tremendously,” says PM Modi.

1.35pm: The Budget will bring new opportunities for rural India, says PM Modi. 1.33pm: This Budget is farmer friendly, common citizen friendly, business environment friendly and development friendly. It will add to ‘Ease of Living’.

1.33pm: Budget 2018 strengthens the hopes and expectations of 1.25 billion people of the country, says PM Modi.

1.25pm: “The Budget 2018 is a testimony to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment towards agricultural growth and farmers’ welfare. The budget presented by finance minister Arun Jaitley is packed with policies and funds to boost the agricultural sector and it takes care of every aspect of agrarian sector,” says agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh.

1.20pm: “Announcements regarding education, health and agriculture have been made. A national health protection scheme to benefit 10 crore poor families has been announced; it is a huge initiative. I would like to congratulate the government,” says Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

1.03pm: NHPS will strengthen growth in the health sector by creating lakhs of jobs and will increase accountability, says NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.

1.02pm: “The government has attempted to pay lip service to farmers and to other marginalised sections of society, but it is a classical case of too less and completely at the inappropriate time,” says Congress leader Manish Tewari.

12.52pm: Finance minister Arun Jaitley concludes his Budget speech.

12.48pm: Sensex at 35,526.23, down by 438.79 points.

12.46pm: Propose to increase the custom duty on mobiles from 15% to 20% and on some other mobile parts to 15%, and some parts of TVs to 15%.

12.45pm: Propose to increase the health and education cess to 4% 12. 43pm: Propose to tax long term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh in listed stock at 10%. 12.38pm: Rs 50,000 additional benefit to senior citizens for investment in mediclaim.

12.35pm: A standard deduction of additional Rs 40,000 for salaried employees. This move will benefit 2.5 crore taxpayers.

12.34pm: No changes in the structure of income tax of individuals.

12.33pm: Rs 7000 crore will be the revenue foregone for the reduced corporate tax on MSMEs.

12.32pm: I propose to extend the benefit of the reduced corporate rate of 25% for companies with reported turnover of up to Rs 250 crore.

12.28pm: 100% tax deduction for the first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs. 100 crore and above.

12.27pm: 41% more returns were filed this year, which shows that more people have joined the tax net.

12.26pm: Demonetisation was received by honest taxpayers as ‘Imaandaari ka utsav’.

12.24pm: 2017-18: Expenditure bill is Rs 21.57 lakh crore; Fiscal deficit 3.5% for 2017-18

12.19pm: Automatic revision of MPs’ emoluments every five years, indexed to inflation.

12.19pm: Emoluments of President, Vice President and Governor being revised: Rs 5 lakh; 4 lakh; Rs 3.5 lakh per month respectively.

12.16pm: Exceeded the disinvestment target and collected Rs 1 lakh crore: FM.

12.14pm: The government insurance companies to be merged into a single entity, and subsequently listed in the stock exchange, as part of the disinvestment programme.

12.13pm: The government will assign every enterprise in India a unique ID on the lines of Aadhaar.

12.12pm: The government has identified 372 basic business reform actions. Each state will take up these reforms.

12.11pm: We will explore the use of blockchain.

12.10pm: Rs 5.97 lakh crore allocated for infrastructure spending in India.

12.09pm: 5 lakh WiFi hotspots to be set up in rural areas to provide easy Internet access.

12.08pm: Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations has been taken up; Mumbai transport system is being expanded; suburban network of 160 km planned for Bengaluru.

12.06pm: The government proposes to revamp the system of sanctioning of loans to SMEs. The information required for sanctioning the loan will be linked with GSTN and all required information can be fetched from GSTN Portal. It will help to grant the loans quickly and will help in reducing processing time.

12.05pm: UDAN will connect 56 unserved airports in India.

12.04pm: An institute is coming up at Vadodara to train people for the bullet train programme.

12.02pm: AMRUT programme will focus on water supply to all households in 500 cities. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth 19,428 core awarded.

12.01pm: Rs 1,48,528 crore is the capital expenditure for the Indian Railways for 2018-19.

12.01pm: Bharatmala project approved for better road connectivity at Rs 5.35 lakh crore.

11.59am: Proposal to develop 10 prominent tourist destinations as Iconic tourism destinations.

11.55am: Women’s contribution reduced to 8.33% towards PF in the first 3 years for new EPF accounts... The government will contribute 12% of EPF contribution for new employees in all sectors for the next three years.

11.51am: 70 lakh farming jobs have been created this year, shows an independent study.

11.50am: Rs 3 lakh crore allocated for PM MUDRA Yojana.

11.49am: Healthcare stocks trading higher after the government said it proposed to cover 100 million families via healthcare protection scheme. Apollo Hospital Ltd rose 4.1%, Thyrocare Technologies Ltd 2.6%, Healthcare Global Enterprises Ltd rose 3%.

11.48am: Mass formalization of MSME sector is happening after demonetization and GST.

11.46am: Total 187 projects sanctioned under the Namami Gange programme.

11.45am: 24 new government medical colleges and hospitals to be set up by upgrading existing district hospitals.

11.44am: Rs 600 crore for nutritional support to TB patients.

11.43am: One medical college per every three constituency.

11.41am: Have decided to take healthcare protection to a new aspirational level. Launching a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, benefiting approximately 50 crore. Providing Rs 5 lakh per family per year for medical reimbursement, under National Health Protection Scheme. This will be world’s largest health protection scheme.

11.40am: Rs 1200 crore for the flagship programme in health wellness centres.

11.37am: Eighteen new schools of planning and architecure will be set up... I propose railway university in Vodadara.

11.36am: Eklavya schools to be started for Scheduled Tribe population... Scheme for revitalizing school infrastructure, with an allocation of 1 lakh crore rupees over four years. Called RISE - Revitalizing Infrastructure in School Education.

11.35am: Integrated B.Ed programme to be initiated for teachers, to improve quality of teachers.

11.33am: Technology will be the biggest driver in improving education.

11.32am: Rs 14.34 lakh crore to be spent for providing livelihood to rural India through infrastructure building.

11.31am: Loans to self help groups will increase to Rs 75,000 crore by March 2019.

11.30am: We aim that by 2022, all poor people have a house to live in.

11.30am: In the next financial year, we target the construction of two crore toilets.

11.29am: Removal of crop residue to be subsidised in order to tackle the problem of pollution due to burning of crop residue:

11.28am: Ujwala will give 8 crore women new LPG connections.

11.27am: Special scheme to address air pollution in Delhi-NCR region.

11.26am: Credit for agricultural activities is up from Rs 10 lakh crore to Rs 11 lakh crore .

11.25am: Fishery and aquaculture and animal husbandry funds with a total corpus of Rs 10,000 crore.

11.24am: Agri-Market Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 2000 crore to be set up for developing agricultural markets.

11.23am: Grameen Agricultural Market (GRAM) will provide farmers a means to sell directly to buyers.

11.23am: Rs 500 crore announced for Operation Green.

11.22am: Allocation to food processing ministry is being doubled from Rs 715 crore to Rs 1400 crore.

11.21am: Cluster-model approach to be adopted for agricultural production.

11.20am: The focus is on low-cost farming, higher MSP. Emphasis is on generating farm and non-farm employment for farmers.

11.18am: 470 APMCs have been connected to eNAM network, the rest to be connected by March 2018... Agri-Market Development Fund with a corpus of 2000 crore to be set up for developing agricultural markets

11.17am: Desh mein krishi utpadan record star par hai, 2022 tak kisaano ki aay dugni karenge.

11.16am: The government will ensure payment of full MSP even if farmers sell below MSP.

11.15am: MSP hiked to 1.5 times cost of production.

11.12am: Our government has ensured that services and benefits reach people directly. The direct benefit transfer in India is the biggest such exercise in the world.

11.11am: Maximum governance, minimum government has ensured India has climbed 42 places in the ease of doing business... We are now working toward easing of living in India

11.10am: Budget 2018 will focus on agriculture and rural economy, health, infra, senior citizens: FM

11.09am: This year’s budget will focus on strengthening rural and agricultural economy.

11.08am: India grew at an average of 7.5% in the first three years since 2014. It is now a 2.5 trillion dollar economy.

11.07am: All the structural reforms will help the economy in the short and long-term... India is expected to become the fifth largest economy very soon.

11.06am: Our government has implemented structural reforms.

11.05am: India stands out as the fastest growing economy in the world... There is a premium on honesty.

11.04am: Finance minister Arun Jaitley begins his Budget speech.

10.20am: Cabinet meeting is underway at Parliament ahead of the Union Budget. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached the Parliament House.

10.11am: The benchmark BSE Sensex regained the 36,000-mark by rebounding over 171 points in opening trade as investors built up positions ahead of the Union Budget to be unveiled by finance minister Arun Jaitley. Read full story

10.05am: The rupee weakened by 9 paise to 63.67 against the US dollar in opening trade at the interbank foreign exchange market ahead of the budget.

ALSO READ: Fun history of Budget you can't miss

11am: The Cabinet has approved the Union Budget 2018.

9.56am: Finance minister Arun Jaitley arrives at Parliament to present Union Budget 2018.

9.49am: Finance minister Arun Jaitley has met President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

9.42am: Union Budget papers arrive at Parliament.

9.28am: Finance minister Arun Jaitley examined the final copy of the Budget document on Wednesday evening. On Thursday morning, he left for the the Rashtrapati Bhavan from the finance ministry at the North Block. He will shortly reach Parliament, where he will present the Budget at 11am after a Cabinet meeting.

9.17am: Ahead of the Budget, the Sensex has opened at 36,127.20; Nifty at 11,067.25.

9.08am: The defence budget for 2018-19 will largely account for only inflation and currency fluctuations, despite the armed forces coveting the latest and the best hardware.

8.50am: Finance minister Arun Jaitley arrives at the ministry. He will later present the Union Budget 2018 in Parliament.

8.47am: Finance minister Arun Jaitley leaves his residence for the finance ministry.

8.43am: Here’s how the schedule looks like for the Budget day:

-- Finance minister Arun Jaitley’s speech begins in Parliament at 11am.

-- Finance minister’s live interview begins at 2pm.

-- The post-Budget press conference begins at 4pm.

-- A discussion with the Economic Advisory Council is scheduled for 4.30pm.

-- #AskYourFM talkathon begins at 7pm.

8.32am: “It will be a good budget. It will be for the benefit of the common people,” says Shiv Pratap Shukla, MoS, finance.

8.06am: Ahead of the Union Budget 2018, the Economic Survey has unveiled 10 new facts about Indian economy. Full story

7.40am: Indian stock markets have posted their best one-month pre-budget gain in 13 years. Benchmark indices have gained 5.6% in the month to Thursday’s Union Budget. Abundant liquidity and expectations that the budget will boost the rural economy and revive private investment, without compromising on fiscal prudence, have aided the run-up.

7.30am: Today’s budget will be the last full budget of the Narendra Modi government before the 2019 elections.

7.05am: Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi is likely to chair the meeting of opposition leaders to plan a joint strategy for the Budget Session of Parliament after finance minister Arun Jailtey speech on Thursday.

7am: “I’m not against merging of two budgets but the government has diminished the railways’ importance. Earlier there was a separate Railway Budget, the government used to make announcements and there was scrutiny in Parliament. Now only 4-5 ministries are discussed,” says Pawan Bansal, former railway minister.