Budget 2018: Here's how to read the Budget document

Arun Jaitley_Budget 2018 Highlights

When Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the Union Budget 2018-19 on Thursday, experts and analysts will be quick to comment about what it is likely to mean for businesses in the coming year.

However, for the common man, the task of making sense of the elaborate budget document can be a gruelling and tedious.

For the common man, the budget is about what gets cheaper or expensive, how the tax changes would affect him or her and the government plans to spend more money.

What you should keep in mind

Since large number of everyday goods and services now come under the ambit of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), it is the GST Council which sets the tax rates. Hence, the Finance Minister will not be in a position to change rates for any of those goods and services now under the GST regime.

The text of the Finance Minister's speech will be available for the public as soon as he concludes his speech in Lok Sabha. The speech presents an overview of the state of India's economy and estimates for the upcoming financial year.

However, the speech is just one of the several documents that the Finance Ministry puts out in the public domain.

All the relevant documents pertaining to Budget 2018 will be available on www.indiabudget.gov.in

The documents

Every chapter of the Budget document carries summaries and highlights for a quick reading. 'Key Features' and 'Budget at a Glance' are brief versions of the Budget, while the 'Annual Financial Statement' details the government finances.

'Implementation of Budget Announcements' document details amounts disbursed by the government for centrally planned schemes, programmes and projects in the previous financial year.

The 'Fiscal Policy Strategy Statement' shows how if the government will be fiscally prudent or fiscally loose. If the fiscal deficit target set by the government for the coming financial year is more than the estimated 3.2 percent of the GDP, you can expect the markets to react negatively. However, if the target is lower, the markets will likely react positively.

The 'Receipt Budget' document gives a detailed account of how much revenue the government collected and its sources, such as various taxes. The 'Statement of Assets' chapter enlists value of assets currently held by the government.

The 'Expenditure Budget' document lists details of how the government plans to spend the money in the coming year. Sub-chapters such as 'Allocation for Important Schemes', 'Expenditure of Ministries and Departments' and 'Statement on Subsidies and Subsidy related schemes' give details on allocation per scheme and expenditure on ministries.