All you want to know about Union Budget in a nutshell

New Delhi, February 1

HIGHLIGHTS

*No change in personal income tax slabs and rates

*Surcharge of 10% on income above Rs 50 lakh but less than Rs 1 cr, 15% on income above Rs 1 cr to continue

*Standard Deduction returns after a decade; Rs 40,000 to be allowed in lieu of transport allowance and medical expenses

*Economic growth pegged at 7.2-7.5% for H2 FY18

*India’s average growth in first 3 years of NDA govt 7.5%

*Indian economy size USD 2.5 trillion; 7th largest in world

*India is expected to be 5th largest economy very soon

*Revised Fiscal Deficit estimate for 2017-18 is Rs 5.95 lakh crore at 3.5% of GDP

*Fiscal Deficit for FY ’19 estimated at 3.3% of GDP

*Govt’s market borrowing estimated at Rs 4.07 lakh cr in FY ’19 versus Rs 4.79 lakh cr estimated in 2017-18

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*MSP of all kharif crops to be hiked to at least 1.5 times of their production cost

*Institutional mechanism proposed to develop policies and practices for price and demand forecast

*Rs 2,000 cr fund for developing and upgrading agri marketing infra in 22,000 Grameen Agri Markets and 585 APMCs

*Allocation for food processing ministry doubled from Rs 715 cr in RE FY ’18 to Rs 1,400 cr in BE FY ’19

*Kisan Credit Cards extended to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers

*Agriculture credit disbursal target increased to Rs 11 lakh crore from Rs 10 lakh crore in 2017-18

*Steps announced to deal with air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region

*2 crore more toilets to be built under Swachh Bharat Mission

*Substantial increase in allocation of National Rural Livelihood Mission to Rs 5,750 cr in FY ’19

*Govt announces 2 major initiatives under Ayushman Bharat programme

*Govt to launch a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover over 10 cr poor families providing coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per family every year for hospitalisation

*Govt earmarks Rs 56,619 cr for SCs and Rs 39,135 cr for STs in FY ’19

*Sets target of Rs 3 lakh crore for lending under MUDRA

*Govt to contribute 12% of wages of the new employees in EPF for all sectors for 3 years

*Facility of fixed-term employment will be extended to all sectors

*Outlay of Rs 7,148 cr for textiles sector in 2018-19

*FinMin to leverage India Infrastructure Finance Corporation to help finance major infrastructure projects

*Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations being taken up

*Suburban network of 160 km in Mumbai at an estimated cost of Rs 17,000 cr being planned

*Gross budgetary support for Railways hiked to over Rs 3 lakh crore in 2018-19 from Rs 2.73 lakh crore in 2017-18

*Plans to expand airport capacity more than 5 times to handle a billion trips a year

*SEBI to consider mandating, beginning with large firms, to meet about 1/4th of their financing needs from bond market

*Allocation on Digital India scheme doubled to Rs 3,073 cr

*Rs 10,000 cr for creation and augmentation of telecom infra

*Government to come out with policy to introduce toll system on ‘pay as you use’ basis

*Proposed expenditure on infra pegged at Rs 5.97 lakh cr as against Rs 4.94 lakh crore in FY ’18

*Govt to evolve a scheme to assign enterprise a unique ID

*Capital of the FCI will be restructured to enhance equity and to raise long-term debt

*DIPAM will come up with more ETF offers, including debt ETF

*Disinvestment target for FY ’19 at Rs 80,000 cr

*Bank recapitalisation to pave way for PSBs to lend additional credit of Rs 5 lakh crore

*Govt to formulate a ‘Gold Policy’ to develop gold as an asset class

*Emoluments of President revised to Rs 5 lakh/month, Rs 4 lakh for Vice President and Rs 3.5 lakh for Governors

*Govt proposes changes to refix salary, constituency allowance, office expenses and allowance payable to Members of Parliament

*The law will also provide for automatic revision of emoluments of MPs every five years indexed to inflation

* Rs 150 cr earmarked for FY ’19 for the activities leading to commemoration of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi

*Growth in direct taxes up to Jan 15, 2018 is 18.7%

*Corporate tax reduced to 25% for firms with turnover of Rs 250 cr in 2016-17

*Interest income exemption on deposits with banks and post offices for senior citizens increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000

*Senior citizens will be able to claim benefit of deduction up to Rs 50,000 annually on health insurance premium and/or general medical expenditure incurred

*Govt introduces long-term capital gains on equity market; long-term capital gains over Rs 1 lakh to be taxed at 10%

*Education cess increased to 4% from 3%

*E-assessment of Income Tax Act to eliminate person-to-person contact

*Customs duty on mobile phones increased from 15% to 20%; also on certain parts of TVs to 15%

*Govt makes PAN mandatory for any entity entering into a financial transaction of Rs 2.5 lakh or more

*Food subsidy to rise to Rs 1.69 lakh crore in 2018-19 from Rs 1.4 lakh crore in current year

*Defence outlay raised to Rs 2.82 lakh crore in 2018-19 from Rs 2.67 lakh crore in current year

*Customs duty on crude edible vegetable oils hiked from 12.5% to 30%; on refined edible vegetable oil from 20% to 35%

*Customs duty on perfumes, dental hygiene, after-shave, deodorants, room deodorisers, preparations for use on hair doubled to 20%. PTI