Union Budget 2018-19

BUDGET 2018-19 HIGHLIGHTS

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents his Budget for the year 2018-19 in Parliament. The budget is largely focused on uplift of agricultural sector, along with major push to healthcare and education sectors in the country.

ü  Govt's health scheme to cover 10 crore poor families is world's largest government-funded health protection scheme.

ü  Arun Jaitley proposed to tax long term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh at 10 per cent without indexation.

ü  Electronic IT assessment will be rolled out across the country, leading to greater efficiency and transparency: FM

ü   Mobile phones set to become costlier as custom duty on them has been increased to 20 per cent.

ü  Health and education cess has been increased to 4 per cent.

ü  For senior citizens, exemption of interest income on bank deposits raised to Rs 50,000: FM Jaitley

ü  FM Jaitley proposes to introduce tax on distributed income by equity oriented mutual funds at 10 per cent.

ü  Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for salaried employees in lieu of transport and medical expenses: FM Jaitley

ü  Companies with turnover of up to Rs 250 crore to be taxed at 25 per cent: FM

ü  Arun Jaitley says that the government does not propose any changes in tax slabs for the salaried class this year.

ü  FM proposes a fiscal deficit of 3.3% of GDP for 2018-19.

ü  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposes revising emoluments as per the following structure:

-- Rs 5 lakh for the President of India
-- Rs 4 lakh for the Vice President
-- Rs 3.5 lakh for the Governors

ü  Jaitley also proposes automatic revision of emoluments of Parliamentarians every five years, indexed to inflation.

ü  We have already exceeded our disinvestment target, announces Arun Jaitley.
Disinvestment target for 2017-18 has been exceeded and will reach Rs 1 lakh crore. Target for 2018-19 is Rs 80,000 crore.

ü  5 lakh WiFi hotspots will be set up in rural areas to provide easy internet access.

ü  Government will take all steps to eliminate use of cryptocurrencies which are funding illegitimate transactions.

ü  Govt announces Amrut program to focus on water supply to all households in 500 cities. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth Rs 19,428 core will be awarded: FMscript async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block; text-align:center;" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-format="fluid"ata-ad-client="ca-pub-6311916451125018" data-ad-slot="9640678770"></ins><script>(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script>

ü  NITI Aayog will establish a national programme to direct our efforts in the area of Artificial Intelligence towards national development: FM

ü  Airport capacity to be hiked to handle 1 billion trips every year.

ü  Arun Jaitley says that 4,000 km of new railway track will be laid down by 2019.

ü  All railways stations with footfall more than 25,000 to have escalators, says the Finance Minister.

ü  Mumbai transport receives Rs 40,000 crore.

ü  The government will undertake redevelopment of 600 major railway stations across the country.

ü  Arun Jaitley announces capital expenditure of Rs 1,48,528 crore for Indian Railways in 2018-19.

ü  National Heritage City Development Augmentation Scheme has been undertaken to preserve and protect heritage cities in the country, announces the Finance Minister.

ü  Government to contribute 12 per cent of EPF contribution for new employees in all sectors: FM

ü  Infrastructure is the growth driver of economy: Jaitley

ü  Target of 3 lakh crore for lending under PM Mudra Yojana: FM

ü  MSME enterprises are a major element for growth, says Jaitley. He also added that mass formalisation of MSME sector is happening after demonetisation and GST.<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block; text-align:center;" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-client="ca-pub-6311916451125018" data-ad-slot="9640678770"></ins><script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script>

ü  Govt will launch health scheme to cover 10 crore poor families, Arun Jaitley says.

ü  The Government is slowly but steadily progressing towards universal health coverage: FM

ü  Government aims to bring 60 crore bank accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana.

ü  Eklavya schools to be started for Scheduled Tribe populations: Finance Minister

ü  Rs 600 crore allocated to Tuberculosis patients undergoing treatment.

ü  Govt will set up two new Schools of Planning and Architecture, says Finance Minister Jaitley.

ü  To tackle brain drain, Jaitley announces scheme to identify bright students pursuing B Tech in premiere engineering institutes, and providing them higher-education opportunities in the IITs and IISc. These students will receive handsome fellowships, and will be expected to dedicate a few hours to teach in higher education institutions weekly.

ü  Specialised railway university to be set up at Vadodara.

ü  Jaitley proposed integrated BEd programme for teachers: "training of teachers during service is essential." Technology will be the biggest driver in improving the quality of education.

ü  Budget allocates money for social security and protection programme for all widows and orphaned children.

ü  We have a target to provide all Indians with their own homes by 2022, says Jaitley.

ü  Ujjwala scheme to amplify targets, will now provide 8 crore rural women free LPG connections.

ü  Air pollution in Delhi-NCR has been a cause of concern, govt has proposed subsidised machinery for in-situ management of crop residue in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT Delhi.

ü  Govt of India will take necessary measures to put in place measures for the state government to purchase surplus solar power produced by local farmers at sutiable prices.

ü  Arun Jaitley proposes a sum of Rs 500 crore for 'Operation Green' on the lines of 'Operation Flood'.

ü  Food processing sector is going at an average of 8 per cent per annum.

ü  We have been saying it for years that India is primarily an agricultural country: Jaitley

ü  Arun Jaitley on Minimum Support Price of agricultural products: Only increasing the MSP is not enough, the government will fix the MSP of agricultural products at 1.5 times the market rate.<script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block; text-align:center;"data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-client="ca-pub-6311916451125018" data-ad-slot="9640678770"></ins><script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});</script>

ü  Our emphasis is on generating higher benefits and productive employment for the farmers: Jaitley while addressing the agricultural sector in his Budget speech 2018.

ü  Our government has worked sincerely, and without weighing the political costs, hoping that benefits are delivered to people at their doorsteps. The Direct Benefit Transfer system of India is a success story that is reiterated across the world: Jaitley.

ü  This year's Budget will particularly focus on agriculture, says Jaitley.

ü  The finance minister also pointed out that India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.