Discussion Topic: Budget 2018 Expectations

Introduction: The government has presented Union Budget 2018, this is the first in the post GST era and the last full budget from finance minister Arun Jaitley before the General Election in 2019. Shedding the impact of GST and demonetisation, India’s economy is “picking up quite nicely”, and will expand by 7-7.5 per cent in 2018-19 to again become the world’s fastest growing major economy, this what the economic survey of 2017-18 has said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the start of the budget session urged parties to rise above politics and contribute positively to the budget discussions and parliamentary committee meetings.

Our focus today is on the big budget expectations:

• Agriculture: Crop insurance schemes, Micro irrigation, Subsidies, Building cold storages etc.
• Rural Development: Toilets, Electricity, Internet etc.
• What choice is finance minister has?
• What will the finance minister do in this budget?
• How does the government plan to finance the schemes?

Source & Courtesy: Lok Sabha TV