Budget 2023 Live Updates: Substantial changes made in personal income tax in Budget, new tax regime now more attractive, says FM

Shares of railway-related companies, including Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd and IRCON International, witnessed an up-trend on Wednesday, ahead of the Union Budget presentation in Parliament.Market experts believe that shares of railway-related companies are in the focus as Dalal Street expects a boost to railways' capital expenditure. Expectations of higher allocations are driving the stocks.

"We don't think this Govt is giving any concession to salaried people. They are announcing the budget only for eyewash schemes. They did the same in previous budgets. This time, focusing on 2024 elections, some schemes & reliefs may be announced," he said.

On Tuesday, the rupee depreciated by 36 paise to close at a three-week low of 81.88 against the US dollar after the Economic Survey 2022-23 said the domestic unit may remain under pressure on account of plateauing of exports and subsequent widening of the current account deficit. Meanwhile, the dollar index, which gauges the greenback's strength against a basket of six currencies, fell 0.02 per cent to 102.08.

While the Budget is very extensive, FM Sitharaman's speech will outline the broad contours of the budget. Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for 2023-24 with a digital device instead of the traditional 'bahi-khata' in her hands. In 2019, the Union Budget was presented in a traditional 'bahi-khata' rather than a leather briefcase. It was the first time since independence that any Finance Minister had 'opted out' of a briefcase or a hardbound leather bag.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the Union Budget 2023-24. Following this, the finance minister is now all set to present the annual budget speech in Parliament shorlty.

Since taking charge in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ramped up capital spending including on roads and energy, while wooing investors through lower tax rates and labour reforms, and offering subsidies to poor households to clinch their political support.Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is widely expected to continue that policy, and announce 10% to 12% increase in budget allocations for health, education and rural projects, helped by a pick up in tax collections."The annual budget will continue economic reforms," said Gopal Krishna Agarwal, economic affairs spokesman of BJP.

While traditionally, copies of the Budget are brought to the Parliament complex before the Finance Minister arrives, this year no document has been printed following the Covid-19 protocol.

Budget 2023 live: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arrived at Parliament for the Union Cabinet meeting

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting her fifth Budget that may do a tightrope walk between staying fiscally prudent and meeting general public expectations of lower taxes and a wider social security net, while at the same time firing the engines of the economy. Sitharaman had in her first Budget in 2019 replaced leather briefcase -- which had been in used for decades for carrying Budget documents -- with a traditional 'bahi-khata' wrapped in red cloth.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex jumped 516.97 points to 60,066.87. The broader NSE Nifty climbed 153.15 points to 17,815.30. From the Sensex pack, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Titan and NTPC were among the major winners in early trade. ITC, Mahindra & Mahindra, UltraTech Cement and Larsen & Toubro were the laggards. Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets in Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong were trading higher.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday again took a digital tablet wrapped in a traditional 'bahi-khata' style pouch as she headed for Parliament to present Union Budget 2023-24 in a paperless format just like the previous two years. She posed for the traditional 'briefcase' picture outside her office along with her team of officials before heading to meet the President. She, however, was holding a tablet instead of a briefcase to present the Budget in a digital format. With the tablet carefully kept inside a red cover with a golden-coloured national emblem embossed on it instead of the briefcase, she went straight to Parliament after meeting President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

FM Nirmala Sitharaman dons traditional temple border red saree to present Union Budget 2023

Government is likely to keep its gross market borrowing below Rs 16 lakh crore ($196 billion) for 2023/24 as it does not want to destabilise the bond market with any negative surprises, two sources close to the deliberations said. The government has so far raised Rs 12.93 lakh crore up to January 27, which is 91% of the overall gross borrowing target of Rs 14.21 lakh crore in the 2022/23 fiscal year which ends on March 31.

Sitharaman's budget for the fiscal year starting April 2023 is her fifth straight since 2019.Other ministers who have presented five straight annual financial statements include Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha, Manmohan Singh and Morarji Desai.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is expected to give a big thrust to infrastructure sector in her Union Budget 2023 speech. Infrastructure forms the backbone of any economy and the government has been focusing on a multi-pronged strategy to invite private investment while also working on public capex push to create jobs

Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget for 2023-24 with a digital device instead of the traditional 'bahi-khata' in her hands. Wednesday's Budget will be Sitharaman's fifth Budget presentation as Finance Minister. In 2019, the Union Budget was presented in a traditional 'bahi-khata' rather than a leather briefcase. It was the first time since independence that any Finance Minister had 'opted out' of a briefcase or a hardbound leather bag.

"The Union Budget 2023 will be announced to the country within a few hours now. Budget is one of the most essential events for everyone, especially for taxpayers & investors. Looking back at the budgets of previous years, the change in Nifty ranged from -5.84% to +4.74%. The budget could provide an opportunity for investors as they might be able to invest in certain fundamentally good stocks at discounted prices. Its most likely for the Indian Government to accelerate economic growth and hence investors must strategize and should look for investment opportunities on the long side. The market tends to move in both directions during the first half of the budget reveal, traders might see this as an opportunity to trade non-directional strategies, short volatility trades etc. The government is expected to focus on Infrastructure, Defense, Capital Goods, Health & Sanitisation in the budget. Investors may tend to focus more on, fundamentally strong stocks only while traders might consider non-directional strategies and short volatility trades," Arvinder Singh Nanda, Senior Vice President, Master Capital Services Limited said.

Government bond yields are expected to remain largely unchanged in early trading on Wednesday as market participants await the federal budget announcement due later in the day. The benchmark 10-year yield could move in the 7.26%-7.45% range, a trader with a private bank said, after closing six basis points lower at 7.3438% on Tuesday, and posting its biggest single-session fall in two months.