Budget Today, Say Sources, Amid Talk After Lawmaker E Ahamed's death: 10 Points

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present his fourth Union Budget today, say sources

Stock markets opened higher on Wednesday anticipating big announcements from the Finance Minister to support the economy after November's notes ban. This is Mr Jaitley's fourth Budget and the first after demonetisation.
The Railway Budget has been merged with the Union Budget, which has been advanced by almost a month for the first time. Opposition parties have alleged that the government made the change to be able to offer sops before elections in five states.
To support higher government spending, economists expect Mr Jaitley to plan a fiscal deficit of 3.3-3.4 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for 2017-18 which is higher than the earlier roadmap of 3 per cent. Rating agencies will frown at such a deviation.
All eyes are on the tax section of Mr Jaitley's Budget. The income tax exemption limit for persons below 60 could be hiked from the Rs. 2.5 lakh currently, say economists. Mr Jaitley had in the Modi government's first Budget in 2014, raised the tax exemption limit to Rs. 2.5 lakh from Rs. 2 lakh.
With the overall savings rate declining, Mr Jaitley is expected to increase the deduction under Section 80C to Rs. 2 lakh from the current Rs. 1.5 lakh. In last year's Budget, Mr Jaitley had allowed an additional deduction of Rs. 50,000 under Section 80CCD (1) for investment in the National Pension Scheme or NPS.
Economists expect the government to increase the exemption limit for interest payments under housing loans to Rs. 2.5 lakhs for existing home loan buyers from the current Rs. 2 lakh. This will benefit the real estate sector, which has been hit hard by demonetisation.
Mr Jaitley is also expected to cut corporate tax rate by 1 percentage point to 29 per cent. The finance minister had in his second Budget speech in February 2015 announced reducing the corporate tax rate from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over a period of time. With the goods and services tax (GST) set to be rolled out from July, Mr Jaitley is not expected to tinker much with excise duties. However, he could raise the service tax rate from the current 15 per cent to align with the higher GST rate.
Though the currency in circulation has largely normalised, the impact from demonetisation is likely to linger over the next few months, says global financial powerhouse Morgan Stanley. This will make revenue and tax projections a tough task, say economists.
The Economic Survey has projected a growth rate of 6.75 per cent to 7.5 per cent for the next year (2017-18) but said that demonetisation is a risk for its growth projection. The Survey sees India's GDP growing between 6.5 per cent and 6.75 per cent in the current fiscal year.
With elections in five states this month and the impact of demonetisation, some analysts are worried that the government may turn towards less productive forms of spending, like subsidies. However, Morgan Stanley expects the government to stick to a fiscal policy stance that will remain supportive of promoting productive spending. "The government policies over the last 2.5 years have shown policymakers' commitment to promoting productivity-enhancing reforms," it said.