Budget 2018: Kanpur residents pray for good budget

Residents of Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh organised a prayer meeting at the Durga Temple in which they worshipped for a "good" budget" for fiscal 2018-19.

The prayer meeting was organised ahead of Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's fifth budget presentation in Parliament on Thursday.

The public has issued an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Jaitley to provide relief to the common people.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley arrived in Parliament on Thursday morning, ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget 2018-19.

Jaitley, who examined the final copy of the document on Wednesday evening here, is expected to present the Budget in Parliament around 11 a.m., post a cabinet meeting.

He is also expected to address the media at around 3.30 p.m. this afternoon.

Meanwhile in national capital New Delhi, Jaitley, carrying the symbolic cherry-brown briefcase containing the Budget proposals for fiscal 2018-19, has arrived in Parliament. The Union Cabinet is meeting presently in the premises to discuss the proposals before tabling it in the Lok Sabha.

Earlier, Jaitley was seen in the company of Finance Secretary Dr Hasmukh Adhia, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg and others at the North Block (Finance Ministry) getting ready to move first to Rashtrapati Bhavan and then to Parliament.

This will be the last full-fledged budget of the incumbent NDA government and the first post the rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

-ANI