Union Budget 2016: ‘Rural population to benefit the most'

The budget has announced a 28% jump in the funds for the rural transformation, allocating the Rs.38,500 crore for the MGNREGA The Dollar Business Bureau

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during an interactiion with media persons post Budget release in New Delhi on Monday

The Union Budget 2016-17 focuses on the improvement of the farmer’s lives and boost the poor and boosting the rural economy with plans to double the income of farmer’s income. In a post budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, “After several years we have reached a position where the actual developmental expenditure will exceed the budgetary estimates.” The Budget has also announced measures for the small tax payers, which the Finance Minister said would benefit more than two crore people. However, there is no change in the income tax slabs. The budget has allocated 2.18 lakh crore on roads and railways. “The sectoral growth has been low during the last period. By 2013-14 the national highways were paralyzed. Those people who have been building highways were on the verge of bankruptcy. They did not have support from the banks. So the budget allocation should help the roads sector on a larger scale,” said Jaitley. The budget has announced a 28% jump in the funds for the rural transformation, allocating the Rs.38,500 crore for the MGNREGA, a rural employment scheme. “Last year we did not end up spending the whole amount on the MNREGA scheme. If this time we can spend the whole amount allocated for the MGNREGA, then that would be the largest amount we would have ever spent,” added Jaitley. Among other major announcements was the LPG connections for poor women, which would benefit 1.5 crore households this year. The government is sticking to the roadmap for fiscal consolidation the Finance Minister said fixing next year's fiscal deficit target at 3.5 per cent of the GDP. However, experts are questioning how the government intends to achieve this alongside the big social sector spending that was announced in the budget.

March 03, 2016 | 02:45pm IST

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The Dollar Business Bureau - Mar 03, 2016 09:10 IST

Union Budget 2016: ‘Rural population to benefit the most'

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