The anticipation for the Union Budget 2019 was high. A new Government is in place, the economy’s growth is sluggish, there are signs of rural stress, and consumption is slowing down. Conventional wisdom says the Government should boost spending, announce mega schemes and shouldn’t mind shooting past the fiscal deficit target.
But the budget speech by India’s first full-time female Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman signaled that the Government’s focus was on augmenting existing schemes rather than announcing new ones. The budget is big on ambition but simultaneously gives pragmatic solutions to achieve them. The Finance Minister resisted the urge to raise tax exemption limit but provided sops for electric cars, housing and start-ups. Here are the key highlights of the budget