85 breached
The Indian rupee has breached the significant psychological barrier of 85 against the US dollar, marking an all-time low amid a confluence of domestic and global pressures.
In a post-Budget exercise, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will address the RBI central board on Monday. He is likely to underline the core points enumerated in the Interim Budget 2019, including fiscal consolidation among other issues.
The RBI Central Board of Directors consists of 18 members including Governor Shaktikanta Das.
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According to sources, it will be Jaitley’s first major exercise following the presentation of the Union Budget by Piyush Goyal on 1 February. He may discuss among other issues an action plan for the fiscal consolidation for the coming months.
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The government announced the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) in the Budget under which Rs 6,000 per year will be provided to farmers holding cultivable land of up to 2 hectares.
The government has decided to increase standard deduction from Rs 40,000 to Rs 50,000 and raise the TDS threshold on interest earned on bank or post office deposits from Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000.
The NDA government has also projected a fiscal deficit of 3.4 per cent of the GDP for 2019-20, against the earlier target of 3.3 per cent.
Besides, the government also enlisted a roadmap to bring down the fiscal deficit (gap between total expenditure and revenue) to 3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020-21, and eliminate primary deficit (deficit left after subtracting interest payments from the fiscal deficit).
The government is also looking at a sum of Rs 28,000 crore from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as interim dividend for 2018-19 based on the financial position of the central bank. In the last financial year, the RBI had paid an interim dividend of Rs 10,000 crore to the Centre.
It was announced last week that Piyush Goyal, who was officiating as the finance minister in the absence of Jaitley, would address the RBI Central Board of Directors on Monday, February 18, in its customary post-budget meeting. Jaitley, who had taken around a month’s break due to medical treatment in the US, resumed office on Friday a few days after returning to India.
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