All the details of Sitharaman's half-a-trillion dollar spending plan

You are receiving this email because you signed up at Economictimes.com. In case, you wish to Unsubscribe Click here

Feb 01, 2021 | 04:49 PM IST

Dear Readers, Budget 2021 unveiled a $500 billion plan to dig an economy out of a pandemic-induced slump. There was no tax relief but the market wasn't complaining. It clocked its best Budget day gain ever. So what made it tick? Read on.

Today's Highlights 1 India doubles healthcare spending, opens up insurance Delivering her budget statement to parliament, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman projected a fiscal deficit of 6.8% of gross domestic product for 2021/22, higher than the 5.5% forecast by a recent Reuters poll of economists. The current year was expected to end with a deficit of 9.5%, she said, well up from the 7% expected earlier. 2 Finance Minister announces Rs 35,000 crore for vaccines 3 New cess for agriculture infrastructure and development 4 Railways get space in Sitharaman's road to recovery 5 ITR filing exemption for seniors above 75 years

Markets & Budget SENSEX 48600.61 ↑2314.84 NIFTY 50 14281.20 ↑646.60 Gold 48292.0 ↓-804.00 USD/INR 73.03 ↑0.07 Budget lays groundwork to put India's banking crisis in rearview mirror Budget 2021: Investors breathe a sigh of relief as FM skips LTCG, STT hike Railways-linked stocks end mixed; FY22 Budget allocation for railways at Rs 1,10,055 crore

Sitharaman sets sights on PSU divestment, LIC IPO Sitharaman said CPSEs in all but four sectors will be eventually privatised. It was also announced that the IPO of LIC will be brought in the coming financial year. Mobile phone prices to rise marginally after import duty levy on some parts Bad bank for large corporates and a new framework for MSMEs Budget extends tax holiday for startups Prices of refrigerator and AC likely to go up due to customs duty increase

Budget BytesBudget Bytes Budget 2021 is a vision for 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', will boost India's self confidence: PM Modi 08:07 Budget 2021: 'Superb, practical, rational and progressive," says NITI Aayog 01:44 Senior citizens of 75+ exempt from ITR filing, easier dividend payout but no income tax relief in Budget 2021 07:48 FM lays down indirect tax proposals, vows to further smoothen GST structure 09:22

Move to relax FDI limit for insurance a big boost for small insurers After years of deliberation, the Indian government has increased the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) limit in insurance companies to 74% against the current 49%, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced on Monday in the Union Budget of 21-22 albeit some "safeguards". NRIs will soon be able to float one person companies No income tax relief this time around Interest on PF contribution above Rs 2.5 lakh to be taxable Firms to forego deduction if they delay deposit of employees' social security contributions

Thanks for reading. We'll be back tomorrow with more interesting stories and updates. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you are having trouble viewing this newsletter, please click here. * If you do not want to receive this mailer, please unsubscribe here. To make sure this email is not sent to your "junk/spam" folder, select the email and add the sender to your Address Book. To ensure delivery directly to your inbox, please add etnotifications@indiatimes.com to your address book today. © 2021 Times Internet Limited.