Union Budget Highlights from FM’s speech
Updated: Feb 01, 2017 05:44:20am
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