Last or Lost Budget
In the last full-fledged budget of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced several developmental schemes keeping in focus the rural and middle-class population.
However, the middle-class, which hoped for a reduction in income tax ahead of an election year, were left disappointed as the personal income tax rates remain unchanged.
Here are the key takeaways from the Union Budget 2018-2019:
Taxes
No changes in the structure of income tax of individuals.
Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 introduced for salaried employees and pensioners instead of existing annual transport allowance of Rs 19,200 and Rs 15,000 medical reimbursement.
This move will benefit 2.5 crore taxpayers.
For senior citizens, no TDS on Fixed Deposits (FDs), Recurring Deposits (RDs) and Post Office interest upto Rs. 50,000.
For senior citizens, limit for investment in LIC schemes doubled to Rs. 15 lakh.
Favourable taxation treatment for farmer producer organisation. 100 per cent tax deduction for farmer producer firms with 100 crore turnover.
Corporate tax reduced to 25% for firms with turnover of Rs 250 crore or less.
Long-term capital gains of over Rs 1 lakh will now attract a tax of 10 per cent.
Customs duty increased on mobile phones to 20% from 15%.
Health and education cess increased to 4% from 3%.
Distributed income of equity-oriented mutual funds will be taxed at 10 per cent.
Employee Provident fund (EPF)
The Government to contribute 12% of the wages of the new employees in the Employee Provident Fund for all the sectors for next three years.
Health and Insurance
National health protection scheme to cover 10 crore poor families; health cover of up to 5 lakh per family per year.
Rs 50,000 additional benefit to senior citizens for investment in mediclaim.
Special scheme to address air pollution in the NCR region; machinery required for management of crop residue will be subsidised.
Government to initiate two major schemes as part of Ayushman Bharat programme to create awareness about alternative medicine.
Rs. 600 crore for nutritional support to all tuberculosis patients.
Agriculture
Agriculture to be treated as an enterprise, government to help farmers produce more and generate more income.
Grameen Agricultural Market (GRAM) will provide farmers means to sell directly to buyers.
Allocation in food processing sector doubled to Rs. 1,400 crore.
Kisan credit card to be extended to fisheries, animal husbandry farmers.
Credit for agricultural activities increased from Rs 10 lakh crore to Rs 11 lakh crore.
Government proposes to launch 'Operation Greens' along the lines of 'Operation Flood' to promote farmer producer organisations. Rs 500 crore has been allocated.
Infrastructure
Allocation for national livelihood mission at Rs. 5,750 crore.
The government will monetise select central public sector enterprises using Infrastructure Investment Trusts.
Rs 5.97 lakh crore allocated for infrastructure spending in India.
51 lakh houses to be built in rural areas and 37 lakh houses in urban areas under Prime Minister Awas Yojana.
Rs 14.34 lakh crore to be spent on infrastructure building. This aims to provide livelihood to many in rural India.
Smart City mission: 99 cities selected with an outlay of Rs. 2.04 lakh crore.
10 cities to be developed into iconic tourist destinations
Construction of a tunnel under the Se-La pass in Arunachal Pradesh proposed.
115 aspirational districts have been identified taking various indices of development into consideration with an aim to improve the quality of life.
AMRUT programme to focus on the water supply to all households in 500 cities. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth Rs 19,428 crore awarded.
Education
By the year 2022, every block with more than 50% Scheduled Tribe population and at least 20,000 tribal persons, will have an Ekalavya Model Residential School.
Government allocates Rs 1 lakh crore to launch a scheme to revitalise research-based education within the next four years.
The government aims to set up one medical college for every three parliamentary constituencies and two new full-fledged schools of planning and architecture in IITs.
24 new government medical college and hospitals planned.
Government to set up Pradhan Mantri Research Fellow Scheme under which 1000 B.Tech students will be selected.
Government increases allocation for 279 SC programmes from Rs 34,334 crore to Rs 52,719 crore. Likewise, for STs, the allocation has increased from Rs 21,811 crore to Rs 32,508 crore in 305 programmes.
Rural development
Rs 2000 crore to upgrade existing 22,000 rural haats (open-air market) to give access to small farmers. The haats will be upgraded to Gramin Agricultural Markets, where farmers can sell directly to consumers and bulk purchasers, eliminating middle-men.
2 crore toilets to be built under Swachh Bharat Mission.
Loans to women's self help groups increased to about Rs 42,500 crore in 2016-17. Loans to SHGs will increase to Rs 75,000 crore by March, 2019.
SMEs
The government proposes to revamp the system of sanctioning of loans to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The information required for sanctioning the loan will be linked with GSTN which can be fetched from GSTN Portal. It will help in expediting the loans granting process and will help in reducing the processing time. Rs 7000 crore will be the revenue foregone for the reduced corporate tax on MSMEs.
Railways/Transport
Wifi, CCTVs to be progressively provided on all trains; escalators at stations with 25,000-plus footfall.
Over Rs. 1.48 lakh crore to be allocated for railways in next fiscal.
Over 3600 km railway track renovation targeted in the current year.
600 railway stations to be redeveloped.
150 km additional suburban railway network at the cost of Rs. 40,000 crore proposed.
Mumbai transport system to be expanded; a suburban network of 160 km planned for Bengaluru.
The Government has also taken steps to set up a specialized Railways University at Vadodara.
An institute is coming up at Vadodara to train people for the bullet train programme.
Regional air connectivity scheme to connect 56 unserved airports.
UDAN (Ude Desh Ka Aam Naagrik) will connect 56 unserved airports in India.
Airport capacity to be hiked to handle 1 billion trips per year.
Digital India
Double allocation for Digital India programme to Rs. 3073 crore in 2018-19.
A national program to direct efforts in Artificial Intelligence. NITI Aayog will establish the programme.
System of toll payment by cash being replaced by electronic payments
1 lakh Gram Panchayats connected to optic fibre completed; 5 lakh Wi-Fi spots to be created in rural areas.
Steps will be taken to eliminate the use of Cryptocurrencies and encourage Blockchain technology in payment systems.
For greater efficiency and transparency, the government will amend the Income-tax Act to notify a new scheme for assessment where the assessment will be done in electronic mode which will almost eliminate person to person contact.
Banking/Business
24 Public Sector Units to be divested, including Air India.
Government insurance companies to be merged into a single entity, and subsequently listed in the stock exchange, as part of the disinvestment programme.
Government to take additional measures to strengthen environment for venture capitalists and angel investors
Disinvestment target of Rs. 80,000 crore for 2018-19.
372 specific business reform actions identified to improve ease of doing business; evaluation of performance under this programme to be based on user feedback. Each state will take up these reforms.
Recapitalisation to help banks lend additional Rs. 5 lakh crore.
Women
To incentivise employment, women’s contribution to Provident Fund reduced to 8 percent for the first three years. This will leave them with more disposable income.
Free LPG connections will be given to 3 crore more poor women under Ujjwala scheme under which currently 5 crore women benefit.
Salary hike
Emoluments of President, Vice President and Governor revised to Rs 5 lakh, 4 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh per month respectively.
Salaries of Members of Parliament to be revised every five years; it will be linked to the inflation index.
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