Jaitley presents Budget in Parliament; commits to reforms, announces major push to farm sector

NEW DELHI : Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today presented the Union Budget for 2016-17 in Parliament, expressing the government’s commitment to push for reforms, while admitting that the coming year would be extremely challenging.
Mr Jaitley noted that the Indian economy held its ground in the face of global slowdown,  and GDP growth had accelerated to 7.6 per cent. He added that  the Current Account Deficit (CAD) had reduced from 18.4 billion dollars to 14.4 billion dollars which was 1.4 per cent of the GDP, and the Consumer Price Index (CPI) had come down to 5.4 per cent.
The Finance Minister announced major push for the farm sector as part of which agriculture credit of Rs  9 lakh crore would be made available in this fiscal.
(AGENCIES)