- By Naveen Kulkarni
Union Budget 2019 India: Even as the expectations run high in the stock markets, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is not expected to throw surprises in the upcoming budget. Given the limited resources available with the central government, the budget 2019 may actually showcase government’s next five years plan to boost the slowing economy growth with fiscal discipline, said a market veteran. “The need of the hour is to arrest falling GDP growth and the government may try to target several segments with various sops to boost ailing economy and job creation,” Naveen Kulkarni, Head of Research, Reliance Securities told Financial Express Online.
The government should also work towards reviving real estate in addition to infrastructure as it has robust impact on sectors such as cement, metals, building materials, paints, etc. The budget should also propose measures for increasing income of the rural sector. The Modi government can essentially target to boost many sectors along with job creation by providing various sops to housing sector, he added.
“Higher deduction for interest on housing loans, restoring benefits for second house purchases, etc could be the kind of measures one can look forward from the budget,” he noted. In the upcoming budget, the government may hike its capital expenditure by more than 6 per cent which it had pegged in interim budget and that could marginally increase its fiscal deficit target for FY20 from 3.4 per cent, he added.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to present the general budget 2019 on July 5. It would be the maiden budget of the Narendra Modi government after getting re-elected with a huge majority in the recently held parliamentary elections.