February 01, 2018: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the Union Budget for 2018-19 in Parliament today. He will first present the budget in the Lok Sabha and then in the Rajya Sabha. Last evening, he examined the final draft of the budget at North Block in the presence of Ministers of State for Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla and Pon Radhakrishnan. Secretaries of the Ministry were also present.
This year’s Union Budget for 2018-19 session is crucial as it comes after government’s two very big financial decisions – Demonetisation and the implementation of Goods and Services Tax. It will be also NDA government’s fifth and last full budget presentation before next year’s Lok Sabha elections.
In the Union Budget for 2018-19, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will try to address farmers’ issues, job creation and boost growth and at the same time stick to fiscal prudence. Besides, small businesses may get some sops to ease their problems after the rollout of GST. There is also an expectation that common man may get some relief in income tax by way of hike in exemption limit.
There will be no separate Rail budget, as it was merged with the General Budget last year. Ahead of the budget presentation, the Economic Survey was tabled in both houses of Parliament on Monday. According to the survey, India’s economy is picking up and will grow by 7 to 7.5 percent in 2018-19 and again become the world’s fastest-growing major economy.
The News Services Division (NSD) of All India Radio will present a bilingual pre-budget live discussion from 10:10 am. It will be followed by the live relay of the Finance Minister’s speech from 10:55 AM. It can be heard on Rajdhani, FM Gold channels and additional frequencies.
After Mr Jaitley’s speech, NSD will broadcast two special budget bulletins of 15 minutes each in Hindi and English – Hindi from 12:30 to 12:45 PM and English from 12:45 to 1 PM. In case the speech goes beyond 12:30, the two bulletins will immediately follow in the same order. The live discussion will continue after the special bulletins.
NSD will also present a live radio bridge programme later in the day. In the special programme, the Delhi Studio will be linked with Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Lucknow and Ahmedabad where experts and analysts will share their views on the budget. This can be heard on FM Gold channels and additional frequencies from 9:30 to 10:30 pm. (AIR News)
