Heena Sharma Blog

Budget 2020 LIVE updates: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present her second Union Budget in Parliament at 11 am today. The Budget speech will be keenly watched on both sides of the aisle in Parliament, and also by investors, both domestic and foreign, besides various interest groups like farmers and the anxious middle class. Budget 2020 comes at a time when India is staring at an estimated 5 per cent annual rate of expansion, the slowest pace since 2009. The economy has lately been impacted by slowing trade, rising protectionism, and concerns over a high level of unemployment. The recent sluggishness in the economy has led to expectations that the Budget would contain further stimulus measures to boost growth through new policy initiatives and continued reforms to achieve accelerated growth and employment generation. On Friday, the government tabled the Economic Survey 2019-20, which projected the country's GDP growth for 2020-21 at 6-6.5 per cent. Catch All

In the run-up to the Budget for FY21, steel producers have pitched for slashing import duties on critical ingredients such as pet coke, coking coal, anthracite coal and metallurgical coke. The country's steelmakers had substantive dependence on imports for these raw materials owing to lack of ample domestic resources. As per the existing duty structure, both coking coal and anthracite coal attract 2.5 per cent import duty. The government of India levies 10 per cent duty on pet coke imports whereas anthracite coal imports are taxed at 2.5 per cent. “ Anthracite coal, coking coal, coke and pet coke are vital ingredients in steel making. Slashing import duties on these imported raw materials will help the steel industry to achieve and sustain cost competitiveness. Non-availability of these inputs both in quantity and quality is impeding the growth of the domestic steel industry”, said an official with a leading steel producer. Fifty to 80 per cent of all low-ash metallurg