FM Arun Jaitley to present Union Budget 2018 today. CASANSAAR are providing you live updates of Union Budget 2018. JUST REFRESH THE PAGE (CLICK F5) FOR ALL LIVE UPDATES.

FM closes his Budget speech and now its time for reactions.

The key takeaways for the market remains the fiscal deficit numbers and the capital gains tax both of which have been the dampeners. 

NO CHANGE IN INCOME TAX SLABS FOR INDIVIDUALS

The total amount of exempted capital gains has surged to nearly Rs 360,000 crore as of last years returns. Considering return on equity is already high, the FM proposes to tax capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh at 10% without indexation benefit with certain caveats.

Capital gains made on shares until Jan 31 will be grandfathered. Short term capital gains remains at 15%. 

Short term capital tax remains at 15%

Education and health cess to be increased from 3% to 4%

Tax relief for senior citizens

* Exemption of interest income from banks, Post offices increased from Rs 10000 to Rs 50000
* Health insurance premium benefit raised to Rs 50000 under Section 80 D
* Medical expenditure for critical illness to be exempt up to Rs 1 lakh

Tax relief to the salaried class
No changes in income tax slabs
But Standard deduction of Rs 40000 to be allowed.

The standard deduction is in lieu of travel and medical expense reimbursement, which amounts to Rs 30,000. So the actual tax benefit would Rs 10,000 crore for each taxpayer. 

FM proposes to raise the deduction under health insurance premium to Rs 50,000. In case of senior citizens with critical illnesses the deduction will be Rs 1 lakh. Further, FD and post office interest will be exempt till Rs 50,000. 80D benefit has been enhanced to Rs 50,000

Corporate tax rate of 25% extended to cos with turnover of up to Rs 250 crore for FY16-17

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

Growth rate of direct taxes have been significant, says the Finance Minister. Tax buoyancy higher in 15-16 and 16-17 and have contributed an excess of Rs 90000 crore in personal income tax collection to the exchequer. Effective tax payers now 8.27 crore.

Growth rate of direct taxes have been significant, says the Finance Minister. Tax buoyancy higher in 15-16 and 16-17 and have contributed an excess of Rs 90000 crore to the exchequer.

In 2017-18 the central govt will be received GST revenue of only 11 months and this will have a fiscal effect. There will also be shortfall of non-tax revenue. The total revised estimated expenditure is Rs 21.57 lakh crore against 21.47 lakh crore. 

We embarked upon path of consistent reduction of fiscal deficit. Revised fiscal deficit for 2017-18 is at Rs 5.95 lakh crore or 3.5% of GDP. Projecting fiscal deficit at 3.3% of GDP for 2018-19.  

FM proposes to revise the emoluments of President to Rs 5 lakh per month, Rs 4 lakh for Vice President and Rs 3.5 lakh for Governor.  He also proposes inflation-linked revision of salary of Members of Parliament 

Divestment target Rs 80,000 crore for FY19: FM. PSU bank recap will allow banks to give additional lending of Rs 5 lakh crore.

National Insurance Co, Oriental Insurance Co and United Assurance Co to be merged into one entity and subsequently listed

Govt has initiated strategic disinvestment in 24 PSUs, including Air India

Govt will evolve a scheme to assign a Unique ID for companies.

FM eiterates that government does not consider cryptocurrency legal tender and will take all measures to eliminate its illegal use. 

Cryptocurrency investors in India have to bear in mind that the government doesn't consider them legal tender. But they needn't worry too much because Jaitley has only said that the government will look to eradicate their usage for illegitimate activities, nothing about investing in them. 

Government announces Amrut program to ensure water supply to all households in 500 cities. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth Rs 19428 core will be awarded, Jaitley announces.

Sebi will consider mandatng large corps to meet 25% of debt needs from the market, he says, adding the Reserve Bank of India will nudge companies to access bond markets for fundraising. 

Govt plans to expand airport capacity by 5 times to 1 billion trips a year. Rs 60 crore has been allocated to kick start the initiative.

All trains to be progressively provided with WiFI, CCTV and other state-of-the-art amenities. Rs 148528 crore will the capital expenditure for Indian Railways in 2018-19. 

4267 unmanned railway crossing will be eliminated in next two years.

Mumbai locals are going to get even better at getting you to your destination on time. The government will spend as much as Rs 11,000 crore to add tracks to the Mumbai local train network

Government will complete constructing 9000 km of national highways by the end of FY19. A huge number of train coaches and new tracks are also in the works. 

35,000 km will be completed under Bharatmala project with outlay of Rs 5.35 lakh cr before moving on to the initiatives in Railways 

Need Rs 50 lakh crore to improve infra, he says. We are confident of completing 9000 kms national highways to be by 2018- 19 - FM

Out of 100 smart cities 99 cities have been selected with an outlay Rs 2.04 lakh crore

Nearly 70 lakh formal jobs have been created this year...govt will contribute 12 % EPF in wages of new employment in all sectors. He says  facility of fixed term employment will be extended. Contributions from women employees will be brought down from 12% to 8% for first three years

FM announces special scheme to tackle Delhi air pollution

MSMEs sector gets Rs 3,794 crore in the form of capital support and interest subsidy. Target of 3 lakh crore for lending under PM MUDRA Yojana.
For Scheduled Castes: 279 programs with Rs 52719 crore in allocation
For Scheduled Tribes: 305 programs with Rs 32508 crore in allocation
Rs 7148 crore for textile sector in upcoming Financial Year.

Govt to establish a dedicated affordable housing fund under National Housing Bank for priority sector lending

FM announced to allocate Rs 1,290 crore to promote bamboo sector, calling bamboo the green gold.

Govt will expand PM Jan Dhan Yojana: All 16 crore accounts will be included under micro-insurance and pension schemes

FM pledges 1 medical college for every 3 parliamentary constituencies

Government will introduce 24 new medical colleges including upgrading certain existing colleges. This will ensure there is 1 government medical college in every state of the country. 

National Health Protection Scheme initiative with nearly 50 crore beneficiaries which will provide up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year,for hospitalisation, one of the largest such benefits program anywhere in the world.

1.5 lakh centres health care centres will bring health closer to every household. The centres will provide free essential drugs and diagnosis. Corpus will be roughly Rs 1,200 crore 

Railway university in Vadodara proposed. Will treat education holistically without segmentation. Will want to see move from blackboard to digital board.

Govt will identify 1000 Btech students each year and provide them means to pursue PHDs in IITs and IISc

Scheme for revitalising school infrastructure, with an allocation of Rs 1 lakh crore over four years called RISE - Revitalizing Infrastructure in School Education - announced

Eklavya schools to be started for Scheduled Tribe population

The FM is now listing out all the new educational and training institutes that the government aims to introduce in the coming year to ensure improved quality of education in the country. Integrated B.Ed programme to be initiated for teachers, to improve quality of teachers

PM Saubhagya Yojana: 4 crore poor will get power connection. The govt will spend Rs 16,000 crore on this scheme.

Rs 5750 crore set aside for national livelihood mission

Cooking gas being given free to poor under PMUY, 8 crore poor women now have LPG connections.

Kisan credit card will now to be be extended to farmers in the fisheries and animal husbandry sector too

Fishery and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund and Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Fund to be set up - total corpus Rs 10000 crore,

The Swachh Bharat Mission seems to flying strong, having already resulted in 6 crore toilets being constructed across the country. An additional 2 crore toilets will be made in the next 2 years and this should go a long way in addressing the crucial issue of open defecation, especially in rural areas. 

Direct Benefit Transfer is a global success story - FM

Food processing is growing at 8% per annum. Krishi Sampada Yojana, the government's flagship programme, will have allocation almost doubled from Rs 750 crore to Rs 1400 crore in 2018-19

85% of farmers are small and nominal. They are unable to transact directly to wholesale markets. We will upgrade 22000 gramin markets. A 2000 crore corpus setup for 22000 Gramin agricultural markets, and 585 APMCs.

Agri market and infra fund of Rs 2000 crore fund will be set up to strengthen the market connectivity

The agri policy for decades was production centric. We sought to change this. Our emphasis is on generating higher revenue for farmers. We want farmers to produce more from the same farm. Emphasis also on gains on landless families and allied sectors. Food production is on a record stage. 275 million foodgrains was produced in the previous year

This year's budget will consolidate gains, and offers provisions for less privileged, senior citizens, infrastructure creation and working with states to improve quality of education. - FM 

Budget 2018 will focus on agriculture and rural economy, health, infrastructure, senior citizens, the Finance Minister underlines

India is now a $2.5 trillion dollar economy - the seventh largest in the world, notes Jaitley. We hope to grow at 7.2-7.5% in the period ahead, he says.

Govt has made indirect tax system simpler, We are firmly on track to achieve a growth of 8%,- FM

There is now a premium on honesty, unlike earlier, says the Finance Minister in his early paens to the four years of his own government. His speech is in English.

Four years ago we pledged to the people of the nation an honest government. When we took over, the nation was part of the 'Fragile 5'. We have changed this and PM Narendra Modi has successfully implemented a structural reform

Union Finance Minister start speaking in Parliament

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is all set to present his fifth Budget speech today.

The final Cabinet meeting before FM Jaitley's Budget underway. Union Cabinet approves Modi govt's last full-fledged Budget

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhavan before presenting the Union Budget 2018-19 in the Parliament.