Union Budget 2018-19

Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley presents general Budget 2018-19 in Parliament. According to him, India is a ₹ 2.5 trillion economy. This budget comes after several changes take place in last yeas like the GST, PSU bank recapitalisation etc. The government aims for 2018-19’s fiscal deficit target of 3.3% of GDP. Revised fiscal deficit for 2017-18 was ₹ 5.95 lakh crore (3.5% of GDP).

Union Budget 2018 – Highlights

8 crore poor women will get new LPG connections.
Social inclusion schemes for scheduled castes - ₹ 52,719 crore.
No personal income tax changes proposed in budget.
100% tax deduction is allowed to co-operative societies.
Social welfare surcharge of 10% on imported goods.
₹ 10,000 crore set aside for fisheries and aquaculture development fund.
₹ 10,000 crore set aside for animal husbandry infra fund.
Propose to launch a restructured bamboo mission with a fund of ₹ 1200 crore.
Pm Saubhagya Yojana: 4 crore poor people will get power connection.
The government will spend ₹ 16,000 crore on this scheme.
Social inclusion schemes for scheduled tribes ₹ 39,139 crore.

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All about Union Budget – 2018-19

Here are the some key points of Union Budget 2018-2019.

Agriculture & Allied Sectors and Rural Development-

Agricultural market and infra fund of with corpus of ₹ 2,000 will be created for 22,000 gramin agricultural markets and 585 APMCs
Allocation for Food Processing Ministry has been doubled.
Minimum support price (MSP) for all upcoming Kharif crops has been raised to 1.5 times the cost of production cost.
Sri Arun Jaitley proposed ₹ 11 lakh crore for credit for farm sector. He also announced a special scheme to manage crop residue.
200 crore for organic farming sector.
Export of agricultural commodity has been liberalized to meet India’s agricultural exports potential of $100 billion.
Operation Green will produce farmer producer organisation, logistics, warehousing etc. allocation of ₹ 500 crore.
A restructured National Bamboo Mission with corpus of ₹ 1,290 crore will be set up. ₹ 10,000 crore are allocated to set up two funds to promote fisheries and animal husbandry.

Defence Sector-

The total outlay for defence in budget 2018 is ₹ 2.95 lakh crore.
Emphasis was given on modernization and enhancement of operational capabilities of the armed forces.
Government will bring a new industry-friendly defence production policy 2018 for giving a boost to domestic production for private sector, public sector as well as MSMEs.

Railways Sector-

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Total capital expenditure for Indian Railways set at ₹ 1,48,528 crores.
In order to cut travel times and delays, Sri Arun Jaitley proposed cutting 4,267 unmanned railway crossings.
A Special Railway University will also be set up in Vadodara, Gujarat.
In a bid to overhaul the railway stations’ infrastructure, all station that have a footfall of 25,000 passengers will now have escalators.
To provide connectivity on the go, all trains will soon be equipped with CCTVs and Wi-Fi.
Allocations for Mumbai rail network was pegged at ₹ 11,000 crore and for Bengaluru Metro, ₹ 17,000 crore was allocated.

Education & Employment -

Allocation of ₹ 1 lakh crore has been proposed for upgrading education sector.
Aim to move from black board to digital board with push for digital technology and e-education.
By 2022, every block with over 20,000 tribals and over 50 per cent STs will have a special Eklavya school.
To address brain drain issue in country, a new scheme to identify bright students studying B.Tech in top engineering schools and allow them opportunity to study and do research in IITs and Indian Institute of Science.
An integrated B.Ed. programme for teachers for improving quality of teachers and education.
Government pledges contribution of 12% in wages of new employees in all sectors for the upcoming 3 years under EPF scheme.
Women contribution to EPF slashed for initial three years to 8%.

Health, Livelihood & Social Security-

Government to set up 1.5 lakh centres under Aayushman Bharat Programme to provide health facilities with an allocation of ₹ 1,200 crore.

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Gas connections will now be provided to 8 crore poor women.
As many as 10 crore people to get ₹ 5 lakh Health Coverage for hospitalization every year.
Allocation of ₹ 600 crore has been proposed for Tuberculosis patients who are undergoing treatment.
Government has set a target to construct at least 2 crore toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission.
A fund for social security and protection of widows and orphaned children is to be set up.
₹ 16,000 crore for PM Saubhagya Yojana was allocated for connecting 4 crore households with free electricity.
For boosting livelihood opportunities and private enterprise, target for loans to self-help group for women has been increased to ₹ 75,000 crore.
Allocation to National Livelihood Mission set at ₹ 5,750 crore.

Banking Sector-

Mudra Yojana lending target has been set at ₹ 3 lakh crore.
Under Jan Dhan Yojana, the entire lot of 16 crore accounts will be brought under micro insurance and pension plans.
26 crore bank accounts opened under the Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme.
Aim to bring 60 crore bank accounts under Jan Dhan Yojana.

Industry Sector-

Allocation of ₹ 3,794 crore capital support and industry subsidy by 2022 for the MSME sector.
Allocation of ₹. 52,719 crore for social inclusion of scheduled castes is proposed in the budget.
Mass formalization of MSME industry after GST and demonetisation.
Excise on unbranded diesel was cut by ₹ 2 to ₹ 6.33 per litre and the same deduction was given from unbranded petrol top ₹ 4.48 per litre.
₹ 10,000 crore set aside for fisheries and aquaculture development fund.
An allocation of ₹ 3,073 crore was done for Digital India scheme.
As many as 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots will be installed to give access of broadband services to 5 crore rural citizens.
Crypto Currencies are not classified as legal tenders as of now.
₹ 10,000 crore set aside for animal husbandry infra fund.

Real Estate Sector-

A total allocation of ₹ 14.34 lakh crore from extra and non-budgetary resources has been estimated for housing, infrastructure and livelihood in rural areas.
Under Housing for All by 2022 and PM Awas Yojana (rural), 51 lakh affordable housing units constructed in rural and 50 lakh in urban areas.
In the flagship Bharatmala project that aims to connect India’s eastern and western ends with a 35,000 km highway and roads network, an outlay was announced to the tune of ₹ 5.35 lakh crore under phase-1.
For toll payments on highways, he said that the government will introduce a new system called “pay as you use”.

Tax slabs-

The government proposes no change in personal income tax rates for salaried class. There has been a 12.6% growth in direct taxes in 2017-18; 18.7% growth in indirect taxes in 2017-18. Standard deduction of ₹ 40,000 for salaried taxpayers was announced. In terms of capital gains tax, long-term capital gains are proposed to be taxed at 10 per cent on investments over ₹ 1 lakh. Short term capital gains tax to remain unchanged at 15 per cent.
As many as 85.51 lakh new taxpayers filed their tax returns in 2017-18, as against 66.26 lakhs in 2016-17. The number has increased from 6.47 crore in 2016-17 to 8.27 crore by end of 2017.
Corporate Tax has been reduced from 30% to 25% for companies with turnover up to ₹ 250 crore.
The finance minister has proposed revision in monthly emoluments of President of India at ₹ 5 lakh, ₹ 4 lakh for vice president and ₹ 3.5 lakh for governors.
For senior citizens, Sri Arun Jaitley proposed exemption of interest income on bank deposits raised to ₹ 50,000 for Senior Citizens as well as exemption of ₹ 10,000 on income from Bank FDs and post offices. The budget proposes 10 per cent tax on distributed income by equity-oriented mutual funds as well as 100 per cent deductions for cooperative societies.
GST revenue will be collected for 11 months. ₹ 21.57 lakh crore transferred in the form of net GST against the predicted ₹ 21.47 lakh.