Union Budget 2018 Highlights: Key takeaways from Arun Jaitley's fifth Budget

12:48 pm: Apple, Samsung and other mobile phones manufactured abroad and imported in India to cost more as custom duty on these production has been increased

12:48 pm: Rather than an expectation of a tax cut, education cess has been increased. Another negative for the market.

12:45 pm: The dreaded four letter word LTCG has been spoken in the budget. A LTCG introduced at 10% for profit above Rs 1 lakh. This will be taken negatively by the market

12:42 pm: Health insurance limit increased from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 and raising limit in critical illness. Positive move for salaried employees and bigger positive for insurance companies

12:38 pm: Standard Deduction for a salaried employee of Rs 40,000 provided. This is lower than the expectation of increasing the lowest slab from Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh.

12:35 pm: MSME corporate tax was reduced to 25 percent to turnover of up to Rs 250 crore and covers 99 percent of companies filling returns.  Makes the scenario more competitve for larger corporate

12:29 pm: Increase in buoyancy in tax collection from an average of 1.1 percent to nearly 2 percent reflects the impact of demonetisation and GST resulting in gains of Rs 90,000 crore in taxes

12:28 pm: FY19 fiscal deficit at 3.3 percent is higher than market expectation of 3-3.2 percent. Bond markets have moved from 7.42 % at the start of the speech to to 7.46  %

12:25 pm: Fiscal Deficit at 3.5 percent of GDP at the higher end of expectation.  GST revenue will be for 11 months in FY18 and hence there will be a shortfall, says FM. Deferment of telecom spectrum also added to the shortfall in revenue.

12:20 pm: Government to set up comprehensive gold policy and to revamp gold monetisation scheme. Earlier policies have got a tepid response, and this trend could continue going forward as Indians prefer to hold gold in the physical form with themselves rather than in a dematerialised form

12:17 pm: FY19 divestment target at Rs 80,000 crore is lower than market expectation where estimates ranged from Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 lakh crore. In a way good, because it reduces supply overhang in the market.

12:15 pm: Smaller insurance companies to be merged and subsequently listed. The number of insurance companies getting listed, with the smaller ones getting listed at the tailend can impact their valuations

12:10 pm: Domestic production of Defence equipment will be given focus through a policy measure. Lack of clarity on defense production continues to hamper the local industry who had allocated capital for the same

12:06 pm: SEBI to consider asking large companies to raise 25% of their debt from the bond markets. Alternate financing and proposal to strengthen of bond markets is a good move as a strong bond market helps economic growth. An Assocham-Crisil study shows  India's debt market penetration at a meager 35% and 17% for G-secs and corporate bonds as compared to 83% and 123% in the USA.

Not so good news for banks if large corporates look to bond markets for raising debt

12:04 pm: Airport network to increase to take care of rapidly increasing traffic. Positive move to airline companies as new airports are opened up.

12:02 pm: Mumbai Railways finds a mention in the budget, with Rs 11,000 crore of outlay. Suburban railway in Mumbai and Bengaluru will be increased. Improved railway network and accessibility generally have a positive multiplier effect on real estate. Watch out for real estate in Bengaluru

12:02 pm: Railway capex at record high at Rs 1.48 crore.  18000 km of line doubling and transforming entire network to broad gauge. Further electrification of the railway line and focus on safety. Good news for railway related companies

11:50 am: Mudra Yojana target increased to Rs 3 crore. Positive step for MSME and job creation

11:46 am: Namami Ganga programme outlay has been increased, with an all round development plan for villages and cities along the holy river. Another push for rural economy.

11:44 am: National Healthcare Programme would also mean increasing usage of generic products, slightly negative for pharma companies but higher volume can offset the price loss

11:43 am:One medical college for every 3 parliamentary constituencies is a big step that can help pharmaceutical companies spread their reach.

11:40 am: Health Insurance increased for the poor families. Flagship national health programme launched to cover 50 crore people. FM terms it as the World's largest healthcare policy. From Obamacare we now have Modicare. Insurance companies will be in limelight

11:37 am: Higher Education given major focus in the budget with a special impetus on research taking a big step forward towards shifting the country from a manufacturing base to a research base

11:33 am: The number of measures launched to improve rural livelihood, is music to consumer sector companies

11:30 am: Targets of Swachh Bharat, rural electricity and LPG connections,  increased substantially ahead of election year. If this is not a populist budget what is

11:28 am:  Credit to agri sector to be increased to the farm sector. More importantly tenant cultivators will be included. Huge plus for rural economy as nearly 60 percent of farming is done by tenant farming

The first big budget announcement of making tenant farmers bankable

Tenant farmers were exposed to moneylenders at atrocious rates. Giving them the same status as normal farmers would give them all benefits of subsidised inputs and low cost credit

11:25 am: Ujwalla Yojana scope increased suggest increased LPG consumption, good for company like Aegis Logistics -- one of the largest importers of LPG

Fisheries farmers to get benefits same as the farmer in terms of Kisan Credit cards. Good for companies like Avanti Feeds and Waterbase which specialize in fisheries promotion

11:24 am: Operation Green launched to improve logistics of tomatoes and potatoes with a corpus of Rs 500 crore. Beneficial for cold storage companies

11:21 am: Promotion of organic farming is not really beneficial for fertiliser and pesticide companies but seed companies will gain

11:20 am: Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana target reduced from 2022 to 2019, good news for road developers as projects announcements likely to see a sharp increase

11:17 am: Mechanisms will be put in place that farmers recieve the minimum MSP to all farmers. Recent data from Madhya Pradesh showed that only 40 percent farmers benefited in the current Rabi season. Government to increase government controlled market which should give the farmer access to MSP prices. The move will help improve rural economy and overall consumption

11:15 am: FM says that farmers should get 1.5 times the cost of input to the farmer. He adds that the MSP has been introduced using this formula. This is good news for all agri inputs like fertilisers, seeds and pesticides companies

11:10 am: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley says what has been largely expected that the budget will focus on Agriculture and rural economy. Does this mean more subsidies and a populist budget? Stay logged in for more

10.55 am: Five minutes to go before the Budget speech starts. Already, there is speculation the Budget will ring in a big change. Media reports say that, in a break from tradition, the Finance Minister will deliver his Budget speech in Hindi. How will it be received by lawmakers, especially those from the South, remains to be seen.

10.45 am: Welcome to our real-time analysis of the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's Budget 2018.