Finance minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2017 in Parliament today. The main highlights of this year’s Budget are higher allocation for rural, agricultural and allied sectors, giving a push to digital economy, increased funding for Scheduled Castes, affordable housing and a cap on political funding from a single source, among other measures.
There was no separate Railway Budget this year as Jaitley presented both together. For the railway sector, Jaitley announced a Rs 100,000 crore fund for railway safety and a focus on cleanliness, among other measures.
Markets reacted favourably to Jaitley’s speech and the Sensex gained more than 300 points. Opposition parties, however, dismissed Jailtey’s announcements as routine, with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi calling it a “damp squib”.
Read the full text of this year’s budget speech here:
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