Highlights of the Union Budget 2018

Highlights of the Union Budget 2018

Here are some of the highlights from the Union Budget 2018-19 presented by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Parliament on February 1, 2018.

Taxations

— No changes to income tax to individuals

— Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 allowed for salaried class

— For senior citizens, exemption of interest income on bank deposits raised to Rs 50,000

— 85.51 lakh new taxpayers have filed returns for FY17

— 8.5 million new taxpayers have filed returns for FY17

— Women contribution to EPF to be reduced to 8% for 1st 3 years

— 12% of wages of new employees and EPF (Employees Provident Fund) for all sectors for next 3 years, also facility of fixed term employment will be extended to all sectors

— Health and Education Cess: At present 3% cess Proposal: Increase cess by 1% Exiting 3% cess will be replaced by 4%

— Large corporations to be nudged to meet 25% funding requirement from bond markets

— Propose to introduce tax on distributed income by equity-oriented mutual funds at 10%

— Proposal: Increase custom duty on certain items. Mobile phone 15% to 20%.

— To help cashew processing industry, Customs Duty has been reduced from 5% to 2.5%

— Propose to amend income tax act for electronic assessments

— Benefit of reduced corporate tax rate of 25% to companies with up to Rs 250 crore in financial year 2017

— Government to set up PM Research Fellow Scheme; 1000 B-Tech students to be selected

— Long-term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh from sale of equities (stocks) to be taxed at 10% without allowing benefit of indexation if the share is sold after January 31, 2018

— Contribution of 8.33% to EPF for new employees by the govt for three years and 12% govt contribution to EPF in sectors employing a large number of people.

Long-Term Capital Gains

– Tax on Long-Term Capital Gains exceeding Rs. 1 lakh at the rate of 10 percent, without allowing any indexation benefit. However, all gains up to 31 January, 2018 will be grandfathered.

– Proposal to introduce tax on distributed income by equity-oriented mutual funds at the rate of 10 percent.

— Short-term Capital Gains Tax continues to be 15%

– Proposal to roll out E-assessment across the country to almost eliminate person to person contact leading to greater efficiency and transparency indirect tax collection.

— Long-term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh from sale of equities (stocks) to be taxed at 10% without allowing benefit of indexation if the share is sold after January 31, 2018.

– Proposal to increase cess on personal income tax and corporation tax to 4 percent from present 3 percent.

GDP and Economic Growth

— Propose 100% tax rebate for farmer producer companies having a turnover of Rs 100 crore

— GDP to grow at 7.2% – 7.5% in the second half of 2017-18

— We are now a $ 2.5 trillion economy, and we are firmly on path to achieve 8% plus growth soon

— Target Mudra loans for Rs 3 lakh crore next FY

— Government has ended policy paralysis. India was in fragile five group. Today, India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world

— Non-performing assets and stressed accounts to be checked by government

— India is now a $ 2.5 trillion economy, and is firmly on path to achieve 8% plus growth soon

— Demonetization has widened tax base

— 100% tax deduction for the first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs. 100 crore and above

— Tax buoyancy more than expected, thanks to greater compliance

— Aim to lower central govt. debt-to-GDP ratio to 40%

— Indian economy was among fragile five in 2014 and today we are among the fastest growing economies of the world.

— Manufacturing sector is back on growth path, services sector is seeing high growth rate

— Rs 14.34 lakh crore rupees to be spent for rural infrastructure

— Structural reforms will help economy achieve greater goals in short as well as long-term

— Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) has reduced corruption and cost of delivery

— 6.3% GDP growth has signalled turnaround in economy

— The government has made all time high allocation towards infrastructure

— PM personally reviews targets and achievements in Infrastructure segment

— Need investment of Rs 50 lakh crore for Infrastructure sector

— We are allocating natural resources in a more transparent manner; there is a premium on honesty now.

— Jaitley proposes creating infrastructure for aquaculture, fisheries and animal husbandry with an allocation of Rs. 10,000 crore.

Focus on Agriculture

— The Minimum Support Price of all crops shall be increased to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost.

— Grameen Agricultural Market (GRAM) will provide farmers a means to sell directly to buyers

— Niti Aayog to establish a national programme to direct efforts towards Artificial Intelligence, including research and development of its applications.

— Proposed to raise institutional credit for agriculture to Rs 11 Lakh Crore for 2018-19

— This year’s Budget focuses on agriculture, health, senior citizens, infra creation, working with states to improve education

— Govt. focusing on ease of living now; PM has articulated the vision of minimum government, maximum governance.

— Government aims to double farm income by 2022

— Agri-Market Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 2000 crore to be set up for developing agricultural markets

— India to launch ‘Operation Green’ to reduce price fluctuation in potatoes and tomatoes, vegetables

— Kisan credit cards for fisheries and animal husbandry

— To help cashew processing industry: Custom Duty has been reduced from 5% to 2.5%

— Women self-help groups will be encouraged to take up organic agriculture

— Proposed to raise institutional credit for agriculture to Rs 11 Lakh Crore for 2018-19

— Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJBY) to be expanded to all poor households.

— 24 new govt medical colleges and hospitals to be set up by upgrading existing district hospitals.

Education, Jobs and Career

— 70 lakh formal jobs being created in this year

— Railway University to be set up in Vadodara

— Proposed Rs 1 trillion for revitalization of infrastructure and education

— By 2022, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have ‘Ekalavya’ school at par with Navodaya Vidayalas

— Most travel blocks will have ‘Eklavya’ residential school by 2022

— Two new planning & architecture schools to be set up in IITs

— Govt. will be setting up two new full-fledged Schools of Planning and Architecture

— Creation of job opportunities has been at the core of the policy planning

— Launch of national apprentice scheme

Roadway and its Expansion

– Confident of completing highways of 9,000 kilometers in 2017-2018

— NHAI to organize road assets in to a special purpose vehicle and then raise capital

Railway and its Expansion

— Much of the Railway Budget to invest on capacity building. 18,000 Km doubling of railway lines, 4,000 Km electrification of existing lines is planned in the coming year.

— Redevelopment of 600 major railways stations have been undertaken

— Bengaluru to get suburban rail network of over 100 km. Rs.17,000 crore for Bengaluru Metro

— All trains to be progressively provided with Wi-Fi, CCTV and other state-of-the-art amenities

— Government to eliminate 4,267 unmanned rail crossings at broad gauge network

— Focus on safety: Maintenance of tracks has been given special attention

Other Amendments

— Technology will be the biggest driver to improve quality of education. Move from ‘Black Board to Digital Board’

— Government to purchase surplus solar electricity

— SME loan sanctioning will be linked with GSTN

— Govt. to take all steps to weed out cryptocurrencies

— From ease of doing business, our govt has moved to ease of living for the poor and middle class

— The mass formalization of MSME sector is happening after demonetization and GST

— Measures to address the NPA of the MSME will be brought soon

— Three insurance companies to be merged, Rs 80,000 crore disinvestment target for next fiscal

2018-19

— Rs 1 lakh crore disinvestment target this fiscal 2017-18 and Rs 80000 crore in 2018-19

— Government to set up dedicated affordable housing under National Housing Bank

— Allocate Rs 16,000 cr to Pradhan Mantri Saubhagya Yojana

— Airlines have ordered 900 new aircraft

— India’s airport capacity to be increased five times to handle 1 billion passengers

— UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam naagrik) scheme will connect 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads

— Salary of President increased to Rs 5 lakh, for Vice President to Rs 4 lakh and Governors Rs 3.5 lakh

— Law to be introduced to fix MPs’ salary every 5 years indexed to inflation

— Government to set up comprehensive gold policy; to revamp Gold Monetisation Scheme

— AMRUT programme to focus on water supply to all households in 500 cities. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth 19,428 core awarded

— 42 mega food parks will be established

— Allocation in Ministry of Food Processing Industries and is being doubled to boost food processing; specialized agro-processing and financial institutions to be promoted by Government

— 800 crore poor women to receive free gas connection

— 80 million poor families to get LPG connections under the Ujjwala Yojana

— 400 crore poor people to receive electircity: Rs 17 crore being spent on this effort

— Benefits to the poor have been targeted more effectively with the use of technology

— 470 APMCs have been connected to #eNAM network, the rest to be connected by March 2018

— Special scheme to address air pollution in NCT, UP, Punjab and Harayana

— 10 tourist sites to become iconic sites

— Allocation of Rs 600 crore for nutritional support to all tuberculosis patients

— Access to portable drinking water, toilets are govt’s priorities

— Open defecation free India is the goal

— 99 cities selected for urbanisation

— 6 crore toilets been set up in rural areas

— 187 projects sanctioned under the ‘Namami Gange’ programme

— Government committed to further enhancing public investment

— Allocation of Rs. 56,619 crore for SC welfare and Rs. 39,135 crore for ST welfare

— Government to allocate Rs 7,148 crore to textile sector

— Propose an outlay of INR 7,148 Cr for the textile sector