Piyush Goyal: Budget perfectly encapsulates Modi's vision of New India

Piyush Goyal. Pic/ANI

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday congratulated Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for presenting the Union Budget 2019-20, which, he said, perfectly encapsulates Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of New India.

"Congratulations Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for delivering a #BudgetForNewIndia. It perfectly encapsulates Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of New India and will lead to investment, growth and economic development leading to the welfare of farmers, poor and middle class of the country," Goyal tweeted.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh also praised the Union Budget.

"The Union Budget for the financial year 2019-20, presented by the Finance Minister in Parliament today, envisaged a total outlay of Rs 27,86,349 crore. Out of this, Rs 3,18,931.22 crore has been earmarked for Defence (excluding Defence Pension)," read a post on the official Twitter handle of Office of the Raksha Mantri.

"For Defence Pension, an amount of Rs 1, 12,079.57 crores has been provided in BE 2019-20. Total Defence allocation (Rs 431,010.79 crore) including Defence pension, accounts for 15.47 per cent of the total Central Government expenditure for the year 2019-20. The allocation of Rs 3,18,931.22 crore represents a growth of 7.93 per cent over Budget estimates (Rs 2,95,511.41 crore) and 6.87 per cent over Revised Estimates (Rs 2,98,418.72 crore ), respectively for the financial year 2018-19," read another post.

Last year, the outlay for the railways was Rs 1.48 lakh crore while the Budget allocation was Rs 55,088 crore. In the Budget, funds of Rs 7,255 crore have been allocated for construction of new lines, Rs 2,200 crore for gauge conversion, Rs 700 crore for doubling, Rs 6,114.82 crore for rolling stock and Rs 1,750 crore for signalling and telecom - the allocations have remained the same as in the interim budget in February presented by the then Finance Minister Piyush Goyal.

Out of Rs 3,18,931.22 crore allocated for the financial year 2019-20, Rs 2,10,682.42 crore is for Revenue (Net) expenditure and Rs 1,08,248.80 crore for Capital expenditure for the Defence Services and the Organizations/Departments under Ministry of Defence, the Home Minister stated.

"The amount of Rs 1,08,248.80 crore allocated for Capital expenditure, includes modernization related expenditure. The Capital Allocation of Ministry of Defence under BE 2019-20 is 31.97 per cent of the total Central Government Capital Expenditure, which is Rs 3,38,569.00 crore," he shared.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier today presented the first Budget of the second term of the Narendra Modi government.

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Edited by mid-day online desk with inputs from Agencies