Business highlights

Following are the top business stories at 1930 hours:

DEL92 LDALL BUDGET New Delhi: Making a big populist push in its final budget before elections, the Narendra Modi-government Friday exempted people with an earning of up to Rs 5 lakh from payment of income tax, announced an annual cash dole-out of Rs 6,000 to small farmers and provided a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 to workers in the unorganised sector.

DEL40 BUD-LD GDP GROWTH

New Delhi: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the country is poised to become a USD 5-trillion economy in the next five years and aspires to become a USD 10-trillion economy in the next 8 years thereafter.

DEL73 BUD-LD AGRI New Delhi: To woo distressed farmers ahead of general polls, the Centre Friday announced a direct income support of Rs 6,000 per year to those holding cultivable land up to two hectare, a move that would benefit 12 crore farmers and cost the exchequer Rs 75,000 crore annually.

DEL7 BUD-FISCAL DEFICIT

New Delhi: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the fiscal deficit will be at 3.4 per cent of GDP this year.

DEL31 BUD-LD INFLATION New Delhi: Asserting that inflation is a hidden and unfair tax on the poor and middle class, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday said the government has restrained the "back-breaking" inflation and brought it down to an average of 4.6 per cent.

DEL58 BUD LD-INFRA

New Delhi: Going beyond incremental growth, India has attained the fastest growth in highways building at 27 km a day and is all set for a quantum leap in transport infrastructure be it railways, waterways, airways or digiways, Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said Friday.

DCM82 BUD-INDIAINC-LD REAX New Delhi: India Inc Friday termed the Modi government's last Budget as a balancing act of populism with a pragmatic approach in an election year, taking into consideration both "hosh and josh".

DEL89 BIZ-RBI-LD DIVIDEND

New Delhi: The government expects Rs 28,000 crore interim dividend from the Reserve Bank of India in the current fiscal, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said.

BOM3 BIZ-LD RESULTS-SBI Mumbai: A healthy improvement in asset quality and a drastic dip in loan loss provisions, helped State Bank of India, which controls over two-fifths of the nation's banking system, Friday report a consolidated net income of Rs 4,709.15 crore for the December quarter as against a net loss of Rs 1,886.57 crore a year ago.

DCM62 BUD-LD GST

New Delhi: GST collections by the Centre missed the budgeted target set for the current fiscal by Rs 1 lakh crore, while total mop-up from the indirect tax has been pegged at over Rs 7.61 lakh crore for 2019-20.

DCM63 BUD TAX-COLLECTION New Delhi: Direct tax collection for current fiscal exceeded the budgeted target by Rs 50,000 crore to Rs 12 lakh crore, while FY20 fiscal the mop-up has been pegged at Rs 13.80 lakh crore.

DEL37 BUD TDS RENT INCOME

New Delhi: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal Friday proposed to increase tax deducted at source (TDS) limit on rent income to Rs 2.4 lakh from the current Rs 1.80 lakh.

DEL85 BIZ-RUPEE-CLOSE Mumbai: The Indian rupee Friday weakened by 17 paise to close at 71.25 against the US dollar as concerns related to fiscal slippage weighed on the sentiment after the interim budget unveiled some big populist measures ahead of the general elections.

DEL79 BIZ-LD STOCKS Mumbai: Benchmark indices finished with robust gains Friday after the government made a big populist push in its final budget before elections, even as some investors fretted about the fiscal impact of farm sops and tax rebates.