New Delhi, Feb 1 (KNN) As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the most eagerly watched budget in recent past, let’s have a look at Key Highlights from his Budget Speech:

• Preparations for GST rollout on schedule
• Govt to launch awareness outreach on GST on April 1
• Tax liability for incomes below Rs 3.5 lakh may go
• Income tax on incomes up to Rs 5 lakh cut to 5%
• Reduce existing rate for individuals earning between Rs. 2.5 Lakh & 5 Lakh: to 5% instead of 10%
• Surcharge of 10% on those with income of Rs 50L to Rs 1 cr
• 15% surcharge on incomes above Rs 1 cr to continue
• Basic customs duty on LNG to be reduced from 5% to 2.5%

• All political parties will have to file returns under Income Tax Act
• amendment proposed to RBI Act to enable the issuance of electoral bonds
• Govt plans electoral bonds to cleanse political funding
• Political Funding reduced to Rs 2000 per head
• Political Parties to receive donation through cheques/ digital modes above Rs 2k
• Transparency in political funding
• No cash transactions above Rs 3 lakhs
• Cash Transactions Capped
• Propose to allow carry forward of MAT to 15 years from 10 years now
• 5% tax cut on MSMEs with turnover of Rs 50 cr
• Sops to affordable housing extended from 3 years to 5 years

• Political Funding reduced to Rs 2000 per head
• Political Parties to receive donation through cheques/ digital modes above Rs 2k
• Transparency in political funding
• No cash transactions above Rs 3 lakhs
• Cash Transactions Capped
• Propose to allow carry forward of MAT to 15 years from 10 years now
• 5% tax cut on MSMEs with turnover of Rs 50 cr
• Sops to affordable housing extended from 3 years to 5 years

• 96% per cent of India’s companies will get the benefit
• Will make MSMEs more competitive as compared to larger companies
• To make MSME companies more viable, proposes to reduce IT by 5 % for small companies with annual turnover 50 cr
• They end up paying more taxes due to lack of sops
• Medium and small enterprises provide maximum employement
• Relaxation of tax norms for unoccupied houses
• Changes in capital gain on sale of property
• Will Make tax collection effective
• 34% increase in tax declaration
• Committed to make taxation rates affordable
• Net tax revenues to grow by 17% this fiscal year.
• Direct tax collection not commensurate with the size of the economy
• During demonetisation, deposits of more than 80 lakhs rupees was made, this data mining will help us in expanding tax net

• 5.6 crore informal sector enterprises registered in India, less than 2 crore filed returns
• We are largely a tax non-compliant society, when too many ppl evade taxes, the burden is passed to honest tax payers: FM
• 1.25 lakh cars have been sold in last 5 years
• No. of Indians travelling abroad for business and tourism was 2 crores last year
• Out of 13.94 lakh companies registered only 5.9 have filed for income tax assessment
• TAX proposals 3.7 crore - filled tax returns 99 lakhs showed income below exemption Only 24 lakhs showed income above 10L
• Only about half employed in organised sector file their Income Tax returns
• Poor tax return filing compliance metrics for India, says FM.
• 1.74 cr salaried income tax payers:
• India's tax to GDP ratio is low. Direct tax to indirect tax is also not optima
• FY 18 expenditure Rs 21, 47,000 cr
• Capex hiked by 25.4%
• Fiscal deficit target – 3.2% in 2017-18, 3% in FY 19
• Need for higher public expenditure in the context of sluggish private sector investment

• Stepped up allocation of capital expenditure
• New law for economic offenders
• Confiscation of assets of those who flee the country to avoid proceedings will be considered
• Legislative changes to confiscate assets of economic offenders who are fleeing the country
• Propose to double the lending target of Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana and set it up at Rs 2.44 lakh crore for 2017-18:
• Passports can be availed through head post offices
• Decided to utilise the Head post office as front office for passport services in villages
• Centralised defence system for soldiers for railway bookings introduced
• Centralised defence travel system in place for soldiers to book tickets without hassles
• Road sector budget increased from 57,676 cr rupees in 2016-17 to 64,900 crore rupees in 2017-18

• Govenment 2 encourage #SIDBI to provide loans at reasonable rate
• Amendment of Negotiable instrument Act on anvil
• Cash back scheme and held for merchants
• Time bound listing of PSUs
• 20L Aadhaar POS
• financial inclusion and JAM important precursors to current push for digital payments
• Strengthen Financial Inclusion Fund
• Digital Payment system to be strengthened
• Aadhaar Pay to be launched shorty to enable digital payment
• India on cusp of digital transformation
• 2 New Schemes to promote Bhim App
• Stand up India scheme to be strengthened
• Sops for SC/ STs, Minorities
• Financial Firms Regulations Bill to be introduced in Parliament
• Bill to protect poor from dubious schemes
• The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has been abolished: FM Jaitley
• Infra allocation @ 3,96,135 crore
• Expert committee to study integration of commodity market
• Further liberalisation of FDI policy
• New FDI policy under consideration
• Transport sector allocated Rs 2.41 Lakh Crore and Bharat Net Project allocated Rs 10,000 crore
• Action plan to eliminate Kala Azar & Filariasis by 2017, Leprosy by 2018, Measles by 2020 & Tuberculosis by 2025: FM
• 64000 Cr allocated for national highways

• Aim to make 50,000 Gram Panchayat poverty free
• National Agriculture Market to be expanded to 585 Markets
• A new metro rail policy will be announced, this will open up new jobs for our youth
• Service tax on IRCTC booking will be withdrawn
• Railway budget allocation at Rs 55,000 crore;
• 1.31 lac crores for development & Capex for railways
• To comission 3,500 km railway track in 2017-2018
• No service charge on E rail tickets
• Steps will be taken to launch dedicated trains for pilgrimage and tourism
• 5 Special Tourism Zones To Be Set Up In Partnership With States
• PM Kaushal Kendras will be extended to 600 districts; 100 international skill centres to be opened to help people get jobs abroad

• 7000 #Railway stations to be powered by solar
• Coach Mitra Facility for Railways in 2017-18
• by 2019 all coaches will have bio-toilets
• Rail safety fund with corpus of Rs 100,000 crore will be created over a period of 5 years
• 500 railway stations to be made disabled-friendly,
• Unmanned level crossings to be eliminated,experts to be brought in for enhancing rail safety,dedicated trains for tourism & pilgrimage
• Four areas of priority for Railways: Passenger Safety, Capital Works, Cleanliness & Financial
• aadhar based smart cards containing helath details to be introduced for senior citizens
• For senior citizens, Aadhar based smart cards with health cards to be introduced. LIC to implement new scheme for them
• #Aadhaar based health cards for #SeniorCitizens 8% assured income from LIC #Budget2017

• Amendment to Wage Act
• Reforms to simplify labour laws
• Skill Acquisition & Knowledge Awareness program called SANKALP to provide market training to youth
• 5 special tourism zones will be set up
• 2 AIIMS centres to be set up in Jharkhand and Gujarat
• 5000 PG sets in medicine
• 1.5 lakh health care centres to be upgraded
• Rural sanitation allocation increased
• Additional 25000 PG courses in medicine
• Special scheme like textile to be launched for leather sector too

• Creating employment in the leather sector
• More skill development centres to be set up
• Mahila Shakti Kendras to be set up
• Total allocation in rural, agriculture, allied sectors will get a record allocation which will be 27% higher
• Safe drinking water key priority; panchayat raj institutions still lack basic facilities; progm to be launched for this purpose
• PM Awaz Yojana to get 23,000 crore
• FM Arun Jaitley announces the highest ever allocation for #MNREGA, at Rs 48,000 crore
• quality education will enrgise our youth #unionbudget2017 #budget
• Emphasis on quality education in schools
• National testing agency for entrance examinations
• Innovation funds for  secondary education
• Our agenda for 2017-18 is transform, energise and clean India, i.e tech India.
• Govt will set up mini-labs to cater to the needs of farmers. Additional 100 mini-labs will be set up by entrepreneurs
• We are on our way to achieve 100% rural electrification by May 2018:
• Over Rs 4,8oo cr for rural electrificantion in 2017-18
• Participation of women in MNREGA has increased to 55% from 48% in the past,
• PMAY Garmin allocation increased to Rs 23k cr from Rs 15k cr. To build 1 cr additional pukka houses in rural areas by 2019.
• Rs 5,000cr Micro Irrigation Fund to be set up by NABARD.
• Merger of Rail Budget with Union Budget is a historic step.
• Aim to make 1 crore households poverty free; use existing resources more effectively with micro plan for sustainable livelihood
• To spend Rs13,240 cr on crop insurance, modern law on contract farming will be prepared and circulated among states for adoption:
• Massive war against black money has been launched
• Dairy processing fund to be set up
• Milk processing industry under milk flood mission in defunct Propose to give nabard responsibility at 2K crore
• Dairy Processing & Infrastructure Development Fund will be setup in NABARD with a corpus 8000 cr over 3 yrs with initial 2k cr
• Modern law for integrated farming will be created
• Rs 20000 cr for irrigation,
• Plan to take 1 crore households from poverty
• Tenure of loans extended under Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana from 15 to 20 year
• We are aware we need to do more for our people, our agenda is transform,energise & clean India, that is 'tech India'
• Demonetization is a  bold and decisive measure, for many decades tax evasion was a way of life for many
• Committed to double farmers income in 5 years, digital economy to enable transparency:
• Merging Railway Budget with the General Budget does away with a colonial practice
• My overall approach is to spend more in rural areas for infra yet adhere to fiscal prudence
• Long term benefits, increased flow of financial savings - all of which will lead to higher GDP
• Gov target to double the income of farmers in next five years.
• 10L crores ($150 billion) for farmers
• Agriculture to grow at 4.1% in current year
• Budget to ensure adequate flow of credit to underserved areas
• Digital Economy for speedy delivery and accountability one of the ten focus areas of Union Budget
• Target of agricultural credit to be at Rs 10 trillion in 2017-18
• Market reforms to be undertaken
• Global uncertainty hitting emerging economies
• Inflation has been co trolled
• Growth has been recovering steadily
• India an engine of global growth
• IMF,World Bank has praised India
• Demonetization is an institutional reform
• Govt is focused on creating more jobs
• India’s fiscal deficit has reduced