Amid slowdown, Nirmala Sithraman to present her second budget today

At a time when the Indian economy is facing one of its worst
slowdowns in job creation and investment, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
will on Saturday present the budget for the upcoming financial year in the
Parliament.

This will be the second time when Sitharaman will deliver
the budget speech. She is only the second woman finance minister after Indira
Gandhi to do so in the history of independent India.

The Budget is expected to announce measures to restore
economic growth and to set out a clear road map for achieving the ambitious
target of USD 5 trillion economies by 2025.

After corporate tax cuts in September last year, guesswork is
widespread about possible reduction in personal income taxes. A combination of
an increase in the basic exemption limit or the introduction of a
differentiated tax rate structure for higher incomes may be on the cards.

To defence the impact on collections, these tweaks might be
accompanied by rationalisation in tax deduction.

Financial markets are expecting relief on Securities
Transaction Tax (STT), Long Term Capital Gains Tax (LTCG) and removal of
dividend tax.

Capital infusion in public sector banks and liquidity
measures for Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFC) may also be on the horizon.

Both the government sources and the economists felt the
Budget would reaffirm the focus on infrastructure spending after the rollout of
an ambitious National Infra Pipeline (NIP) in December.

The Budget speech will begin at around 11:00 am today with
Sitharaman beginning it with an address to the speaker of Lok Sabha. Usually,
the duration of the presentation ranges from 90 to 120 minutes.

The Union Budget is the financial statement of the
government, detailing its revenue and expenditure in the past, as well as
estimated spending and projections for the coming year.