Union Budget 2019: No tax on income up to Rs 5 lakh, PM Narendra Modi hails budget for 'New India'

From middle class to labourers, from farmers’ growth to the development of businessmen, from manufacturing to MSME sector, from growth of the economy to development of New India, everyone has been taken care of in this interim budget: PM Modi

Union Minister Arun Jaitley Friday complimented Piyush Goyal for delivering an excellent pro-farmer, pro-poor budget which will also strengthen the purchasing power of middle class.  

Here's what Arun Jaitley said. 

FM on Black Money: The government is committed to eliminating the scourge of black money, anti-black money measures taken have brought an undisclosed income of about 1.30 lakh crore rupees to the fore and 3.38 lakh shell companies were deregistered. 

Villages to be converted to digital villages. Target over the next 5 years is to create over 5 lakh digital villages: Piyush Goyal

MGNREGA allocation set at Rs 60,000 crore for FY19-20: Piyush Goyal said. 

We have brought down average inflation to 10%, says Piyush Goyal. If we have not controlled inflation, our families will spend 30-40% extra on basic necessities. 

Union Cabinet has approved the interim Budget 2019-20

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MPs dress in black to protest against the central government ahead of the presentation of the interim #Budget2019. They are protesting in Parliament premises demanding special category status for Andhra Pradesh.

The last five budgets have been dedicated to the farmers, the government's sixth budget will also be for the farmers, it will empower them: Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh

Union Ministers Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh, and Ravi Shankar Prasad arrive at the Parliament.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal calls on President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan before presenting the Union Budget 2019. 

Sensex opens at 36311.74; Nifty opens at 10851.35

Much-awaited interim budget copies on Friday reached the Parliament. Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, who examined the final copy of the interim budget document on Thursday evening, will present the budget in the Lok Sabha at 11 am.

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal reached the Ministry of Finance in the North Block on Friday morning, ahead of the presentation of the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha.

As per the standard practice, a vote-on-account or approval for essential government spending for a limited period is taken in an election year and a full-fledged budget is presented in the Lok Sabha by the new government. If the budget date falls a few months ahead of General Elections, then an interim budget is presented.

The interim budget will seek Parliament’s nod for spending till a new Central government is not sworn-in.
The new government, elected after the General Elections due by May, is expected to present the full-fledged budget in July to be preceded by the tabling of Economic Survey. 

“All the budgets presented by them in the past has only been ‘jumle’ [gimmicks], today’s will be the same,” Congress leader MallikarjunKharge

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh CM N. Chandrababu Naidu reached state assembly wearing a black shirt to protest against the Central Govt. The CM wore a black shirt showing support to the protest called in by Pratyeka Hoda Sadhana Samithi (PHSS), demanding special status for the state.

S Tharoor, Congress: The whole exercise has turned out to be a damn squib. We've seen one good thing that is tax exemption for the middle class. Rs 6000 in income support for farmers boils down to Rs 500 per month. Is that supposed to enable them to live with the honour&dignity?