Finance Minister Arun Jaitley left for Rashtrapati Bhavan from North Block on Thursday morning to call on President Ram Nath Kovind before presenting the Union Budget 2018-19.
Jaitley will be heading for a Cabinet meeting scheduled for 10.15 am after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Advertisement
Later today, at 11 am, the Finance Minister will table the budget in the Parliament later today. It is the last full Budget of the BJP-led NDA government as the nation heads to polls in 2019.
It is also the first Union Budget since the government announced the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It is expected that the Budget will have a populist touch given the upcoming elections.
While it will highlight the economic achievements of the ongoing financial year, Jaitley will also spell out the plans the government has with regard to India’s economy, including expenditure and revenue.
In anticipation, the Sensex opened on a positive note jumping nearly 135 points to 36,100. Nifty also opened at 11,068, up by 40 points.
Jaitley was busy giving final touches to the Union Budget till Wednesday evening.
On Wednesday, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) released a revised estimate of India’s GDP growth rate for 2016-17, which remained unchanged at 7.1 per cent. The growth rate for 2015-16 was revised to 8.2 per cent from the earlier estimates of 8 per cent.
The real GDP or GDP at constant (2011-12) prices for the years 2016-17 and 2015-16 stands at Rs 121.96 trillion and Rs 113.86 trillion, respectively, showing growth of 7.1 per cent during 2016-17 and 8.2 per cent during 2015-16, the CSO said in a statement.
