Morning Brief: Budget 2018: Over To You, Mr Jaitley; Rajasthan Bypoll Results Today; Government Rolls Out E-Way Bills

Good morning, dear reader! Here’s your morning news and views brief for today.

Arun Jaitley To Present Union Budget 2018: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the Union Budget 2018 in Parliament today at 11am, with investors expecting increased spending and a reduction in tax slabs. In his budget speech, Jaitley is expected to address agriculture distress, unemployment and ways to boost growth in the Indian economy while sticking to fiscal prudence. There is also an expectation that the common man may get income tax relief with an increase in the exemption limit. The Union Budget, in view of upcoming assembly polls in eight states – including three major states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party – and general elections next year, may see new rural schemes and stepping up of funding for existing programmes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, rural housing, irrigation projects and crop insurance. This will be Narendra Modi government's fifth and last full-fledged budget presentation. The Railway Budget will also be presented with the Union Budget. This budget session will be crucial as it will be the first budget to be presented under the goods and services regime. Also, in an initiative to help the common citizen understand the Union Budget, the Finance Ministry had released a list of 29 terms that Jaitley will use in his speech with their definitions.

India Beats Global Average On Budget Transparency: When it comes to budget transparency, India scored slightly better than the global average, says the Open Budget Survey (2017) released on 30 January. Every two years, the International Budget Partnership (IBP), using over a hundred indicators, assesses budget transparency based on the amount, level of detail and timeliness of budget information made available to the public. With a rank of 53 among 115 countries covered by the survey, India's score of 48 out of 100 for transparency (as against the global average of 43), showed an improvement of two percentage points over the 2015 index. Results of the survey highlight that the global average score of budget transparency has declined by 2 percentage points from 45 in 2015 to 43 in 2017. It reflects that 89 out of the 115 countries fail to make sufficient budget information publicly available. To improve budget transparency, IBP suggests that India should draft and publish a pre-budget statement and mid-year review. Pre budget statements are published by nearly 50 countries, including India's neighbour – Afghanistan.

Markets See Best One-Month Pre-Budget Rally In 13 Years: Riding the coat tails of a worldwide equities rally, Indian stock markets have posted their best one-month pre-budget gain in 13 years. Benchmark indices have gained 5.6 per cent in the month to today's Union Budget. Analysts said investors have high hopes of the government reviving investment and growth in the last full budget before next year’s general election. Abundant liquidity and expectations that the budget will boost the rural economy and revive private investment, without compromising on fiscal prudence, have aided the run-up. The one-month gain has come despite a pullback in the last two sessions following a sell-off in US and Asian markets over concerns of high valuations. On Wednesday, the Sensex fell 68.71 points, or 0.19 per cent, to close at 35,965.02. Since 2000, the Sensex has gained only eight times in the month leading up to the budget presentation, and rose as much as 11.7 per cent in the run-up in 2002.

E-Way Bill Roll-Out Today: The e-way bill, key to preventing tax evasion under the goods and services tax (GST), will be rolled out nationwide from today (1 February). This comes amid persistent concerns in some quarters that its enforcement could trigger fresh economic disruption. The GST e-way bill, an electronic documentation tracking the movement of goods, is mandatory for all inter-state movement of goods from 1 February. It is designed to prevent underreporting and evasion of taxes. The e-way bill is a key part of the GST architecture. It was put on hold until after GST, which was implemented from 1 July, stabilised. Over 2.84 million GST e-way bills have been generated in the trial phase so far. “We rolled out the e-way bill system for all states from 17 January. Given the experience so far of the last two weeks, we are optimistic that the rollout will be smooth,” said Goods and Services Tax Network chief executive officer Prakash Kumar.

Shopian Incident: Soldiers Fired In Self-Defence, Says Army: The Indian Army on Wednesday asserted its soldiers had only opened "controlled fire in self-defence" after issuing enough warnings to the violent mob pelting stones on its convoy at Shopian in south Kashmir last Saturday, which left three civilians dead and seven soldiers injured. “We have done our internal inquiry. The soldiers responded after being provoked to the ultimate. It was an act in self-defence and to protect government property,” said Northern Command chief Lt-General Devraj Anbu on Wednesday, amid a political slugfest between coalition partners People's Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Jammu and Kashmir. The Army had also filed a "counter-FIR", detailing how four of its vehicles that were separated from the 16 others in the administrative convoy were surrounded and attacked by the violent protesters, in response to the state police lodging an FIR charging "Major Aditya" and personnel from the 10 Garhwal Rifles battalion with murder and attempt to murder under the Ranbir Penal Code for the incident at Ganwapora Chowk.

Rajasthan Bypolls: Counting Of Votes For Alwar, Ajmer And Mandalgarh Seats Today: Counting of votes for the Rajasthan bypolls in two Lok Sabha and one assembly constituency, a crucial contest ahead of the Assembly elections due later this year, will take place today. A total of 42 candidates are in the fray for the bypolls to the three seats, the election to which was held on Monday. In Alwar, Jaswant Singh Yadav of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Karan Singh Yadav of the Congress have contested the election. In Ajmer, Raghu Sharma of the Congress will be contesting against BJP's Ram Swaroop Lamba. In Mandalgarh, BJP's Shakti Singh Hada and Congress's Vivek Dhakad are poised for a tough fight. A spokesperson for the state election department said the counting of votes of the Alwar and Ajmer Lok Sabha seats will be held in the respective constituencies, whereas it will take place in Bhilwara for the Mandalgarh assembly seat. Counting for the West Bengal bypolls will also be held today.

Madhya Pradesh Clears Proposal To Build “Bharat Mata” Temple: The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Madhya Pradesh has cleared a proposal allowing construction of a “Bharat Mata” temple near the state capital. The proposal moved by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) seeking land to build the temple of the “Mother India”, which will come up in Singarcholi area near Airport Road, was approved at a cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday. “The Cabinet cleared the land proposal for building the Bharat Mata Parisar in Bhopal,” government spokesman Narottam Mishra said. The government has allocated 5.046 hectares of land to the BMC for the construction of the Bharat Mata Mandir Parisar (temple complex) at Singarcholi, a close aide of Mishra said. The development came nearly a month after Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat unveiled a 16-feet tall statue of Bharat Mata in MP’s Ujjain district.

Rohingya Crisis: India Can’t Become Refugee Capital Of World, Centre Tells SC: The Union government told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that India cannot become the refugee capital of the world, in a case relating to the Rohingya Muslims crossing the border from Myanmar into India. This comes as the National Human Rights Commission suggested that the rights of the refugees must be protected. “We do not want India to become the refugee capital of the world. People from every other country will flood our country,” additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta told a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra. The Supreme Court is hearing a bunch of petitions seeking to restrain the Centre from deporting about 40,000 Rohingya Muslims, who have fled alleged persecution in Myanmar. The process of sending them back has been temporarily stopped on the court’s advice.

Guarding Pakistan-Bangladesh Borders: Government Sanctions 7,000 Troops To BSF: With a fund of more than Rs 2,090.94 crore, the Border Security Force (BSF), which guards the country's volatile border with Pakistan, will raise six new battalions comprising around 7,000 personnel, official sources said. The Ministry of Home Affairs has sanctioned an amount of Rs 2,090.94 crore to the force. The new battalions will also be deployed along the smuggling and infiltration prone India-Bangladesh border. The troops will be recruited fresh by the force, to be deployed as part of the six battalions. They will be on the ground in over an year's time, the sources said. Each BSF battalion has over 1,000 jawans and officers. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) is tasked to guard the 3,488 km long Indian frontier with China. Sources said the Home Ministry's sanction to allow the ITBP to raise new battalions was in the "final stages".

MUST READ OPINIONS AND COLUMNS

Fix Trust Deficit Between Taxpayers And Income-Tax Department: The current way in which the I-T department functions is only illustrative of the kind of difficulties citizens face in their interaction with the government of India. These detract quite considerably from the ‘ease of doing business’, indicate a lack of social capital and are major obstacles to development.

What The Union Budget Must Bring: It must increase rural investment, rationalise GST, income and corporate taxes to improve incomes and create jobs.

Three Ways To Minimise Power Sector NPAs: Here are the steps that can help minimise NPAs and haircut levels for banks, and also provide a signal to new investors who haven’t put money into the conventional power sector for more than three years.

SWARAJYA SPECIAL

The Government Is Leaving No Stone Unturned To Help Farmers, But Are They Impressed? Recognising the role of agriculture and the allied sector in not just ensuring food security, but also reducing poverty – given that it is the largest employer – the government is trying its best to identify weak links and address each issue systematically.

We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief. Have a great day ahead!

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