Highlights of Union Budget 2018-19

The Union Budget of India, also referred to as the Annual financial statement in the Article 112 of the Constitution of India,is the annual budget of the Republic of India. The Government presents it on the first day of February so that it could be materialized before the commencement of new financial year in April. Till 2016 it was presented on the last working day of February by the Finance Minister of India in Parliament. The budget, which is presented by means of the Finance bill and the Appropriation bill has to be passed by both the Houses before it can come into effect from April 1, the start of India's financial year.

An Interim Budget is not the same as a 'Vote on Account'. While a 'Vote on Account' deals only with the expenditure side of the government's budget, an Interim Budget is a complete set of accounts, including both expenditure and receipts. An Interim Budget gives the complete financial statement, very similar to a full Budget. While the law does not debar the Union government from introducing tax changes, normally during an election year, successive governments have avoided making any major changes in income tax laws during an Interim Budget.

12.45 P.M.

Duties

• reduce customs duty. Customs duty on mobile phones and parts of televisions will be increased to 20 per cent. Customs duty on raw cashew will be reduced from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent.
• change the name of the Central Board of Excise and Customs to the Central Board of Direct Taxes and Customs.
• Mr. Jaitley quotes Swami Vivekananda. "Let new India arise out of peasants' cottage, grasping the plough, out of huts, cobbler and sweeper."
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12.35 P.M.

Salaried taxpayers

• No changes in personal income tax rates.
• A major portion of the personal income tax collection comes from the salaried class. 1.89 crore returns were filed last year, and ₹1.44 lakh crore was paid as taxes.
• a standard deduction of ₹40,000 for transport and medical reimbursements. Revenue cost of this is ₹8,000 crore.
• Exemption of interest income for deposits in banks and post offices (including TDS) will be increased from ₹10,000 to ₹50,000 for senior citizens.
• All senior citizens will now be able to claim benefit of a deduction of ₹50,000 for medical insurance.
• For critical illnesses, the deduction has been increased to ₹1,00,000.

12.30 P.M.

Taxation

• Growth rate of direct taxes in 2016-17 and 2017-18 have been significant. 12.6% growth was recorded last year, and 18.7% growth till January 2018.
• 85.51 lakh new taxpayers filed their returns. The number of effective taxpayers has increased from 6.47 lakh crore to 8.27 lakh crore. The excess revenue from personal income tax is ₹90,000 crore.
• 100 per cent deduction to farmer-producer companies having ₹100 crore turnover. Corporate tax will be reduced to 25 per cent for companies who have a turnover up to ₹250 crore.
• Estimates of revenue foregone due to this measure is ₹7,000 crore.
• Long term capital gains tax of 10 per cent is proposed for amounts exceeding ₹1 lakh. Health and Education Cess will be increased to four per cent.

12.20 P.M.

Members' salaries

• Emoluments will revised for the President to ₹5 lakh, ₹4lakh for Vice-President and ₹3.5 lakh per month for Governors.
• changes to refix emoluments to MPs with effect from April 1, 2018. The law will provide automatic revision of emoluments every five years indexed to inflation.
• Total revenue expenditure of the government is ₹21.57 lakh crore.
• Fiscal deficit 2013-14 was 4.4 per cent of the GDP. In 2017-18 3.5 per cent of the GDP. Projected fiscal deficit 3.3 per cent of the GDP.

12.10 P.M.

Connectivity and defence

• Niti Aayog will establish programme to direct initiatives to develop artificial intelligence initiatives. Phase 1 of Bharat Net programme has been completed.
• The government will explore use of blockchain technology proactively to boost digital economy. 
• The government will not consider cryptocurrency as legal tender.
•  a unique ID for enterprises too.
• The government will bring out an industry friendly defence policy.
•  taken measures to develop two defence industrial production corridors in the country.

12.10 P.M.

Finance and investment

• The RBI has issued guidelines to nudge corporates to access the bond markets. 
• Corporate bonds rated at BBB are investment grade. 
• The government and concerned regulators will take necessary action. 
• Govt will take reform measures with respect to the stamp duty regime.
• The Commerce Ministry is developing a national logistics portal as a single window program to boost the logistics sector. 
• Disinvestment target of ₹80,000 crore has been set for this year.
• The government will recapitalise public sector banks to help them lend an additional ₹5 lakh crore. 
• United India Insurance, Oriental Insurance and National Insurance will be merged and then listed. 
• Gold monetisation scheme will be revamped to allow people to open hassle-free gold deposit accounts.

11.54 A.M.

Infrastructure and transport

• ₹50 lakh crore is needed to create world class infrastructure in the country. 
• 99 cities have been selected with outlay of ₹2.09 lakh crore under Smart City programme. 
• 10 prominent tourist sites will be developed into iconic ones to boost tourism.
• Railway capex for the year 2018-19 is ₹1.48 lakh crore. 18,000 km of doubling will eliminate capacity constraints.
• India moving towards optimal electrification of railway networks. 
• Work on Eastern and Western dedicated freight corridor is also in progress. 
• Maintenance of track infrastructure is being given special attention.
• Increasing use of technology, fog safe train protection and warning system are other focuses.
•  Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations has been taken up. 
• All stations with more than 25,000 footfalls will have escalators.
•  All trains to be progressively provided with WiFI, CCTV and other state-of-the-art amenities.
• An institute is coming up at Vadodara to train manpower for high-speed railway projects.
• UDAN shall connect 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads in the country. 
• AAI has 124 airports. 
• Govt propose to expand our airport capacity to handle more than one billion trips a year.

11.35 A.M.

Health, education and social welfare

• Our government is implementing a comprehensive social security scheme. 
• Govt. have managed to get children to school but quality of education is still a cause for concern.
• Govt. now propose to treat education holistically without segmentation from pre-nursery to Class 12. 
• Govt.will initiate an integrated B-Ed programme for teachers. 
• Govt. propose to move gradually from blackboard to digital board.
• Govt.proposes to launch the Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems of Education (RISE) by next year. 
• Govt. propose to set up two new full-fledged schools of planning and architecture. 
• 18 new schools of planning and architecture will be set up in the IITs and NITs. 
• Govt. also announces the Prime Minister's fellowship programme to subsidise research.
• The National health Policy 2017 has envisioned health and wellness centres as the foundation of India's healthcare system. 
• Govt. commits ₹1,200 crore for this flagship programme and invites contributions from the private sector.
• Govt. are launching a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. 
• Govt. will provide them with upto ₹5 lakh per family per year in secondary and tertiary care institutions. 
•  this scheme will have 50 crore beneficiaries.
• These schemes will generate lakhs of jobs, aprticularly for women, 
• The government is progressing towards universal health coverage.
• Tuberculosis claims more lives every year than any other disease. 
• The government will provide ₹600 crore for nutrititonal support to all TB patients.
• 24 new government medical colleges will be set up by upgrading existing district hospitals in the country. 
• At least one medical college for three parliamentary constituencies.
• The Jivan Bima Yojana has benefited 5.22 crore families. 
• 187 projects have been sanctioned under Namami Gange. 
• All 4,465 Ganga gram villages have been declared open-defecation free. 
• The government has identified 115 aspirational districts and will invest in social services.
• Mass formalisation of MSMEs is taking place following demonetisation and GST. 
• It has created a big database.
•  Online loan sanctioning facility will be revamped to speed up loan giving by banks.
• ₹3 lakh crore is set as target for the Mudra Yojana in FY19. 
• Additonal measures will be taken to boost the growth of venture capital funds and angel investors.
• The government will contribute 12 per cent of wages of new employees for all sectors.
• Women's contribution to PF will be reduced to 8 per cent for the first three years of their employment with no reduction in employer's contribution. 
• The government allocates ₹7,148 crore for the textile sector.

11.15 A.M.

Agriculture and rural economy

• Govt. emphasis is on generating higher income for farmers, and generating productive and gainful employment on farms, and non-farm workers. 
• Govt. want to help the farmers produce more from the same land, at a lesser cost, and get a better price.
•  this year's Budget will focus on strengthening agriculture and the rural economy.
• For better price realisation, farmers need to make decisions based on prices likely to be available in the market.
• APMCs will be linked with ENAM. 
• The government will develop 22,000 Gramin agricultural markets. 
• The cluster-model approach will be adopted for agricultural production. 
• Organic farming with farmer-producer organisations, rural-producer organisation and women self-help groups will be encouraged.
• Minimum Support Price shall be increased by 1.5 times. 
• Operation Green will be launched for agriculture and the Minister allocates ₹500 crore for this.
• The Minister proposes to liberalise export of agricultural products. 
• Govt. agricultural exports have a potential of $100 billion as against reality of $30 billion. 
• Govt. also allocates ₹1,290 crore for development of the bamboo production sector.
• Ujjwala Yojana, the free LPG connection scheme has been expanded to eight crore households.
• The Saubhagya Yojana will be another focus for the government. Six crore toilets have been built already, and in the next year, two crore additional toilets will be constructed.
•  the government will establish a dedicated affordable housing fund.
• Loans to self-help groups will increase to ₹75,000 crore. 
• Govt. allocates ₹5,750 crore to National Livelihood Mission and ₹2,600 crore to the groundwater irrigation scheme.

11.05 A.M.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the Union Budget. When our government took over India was part of "fragile five," we have successfully reverted it. We are now the fastest growing economy of the world, he says.

Demonetisation has reduced the quantum of cash currency and spurred digitisation of the economy, says Mr. Jaitley.

Indian economy is a $2.5 trillion economy. India is expected to become the fifth largest economy very soon. Indian society, polity and economy have shown remarkable resilience in adjusting to structural reforms. We will grow 7.2-7.5% in the second half of this year. Manufacturing sector is back on the growth path. Exports are expected to grow 15% in 2018. We have taken up programmes to direct the benefits of structural reforms to the poor.

The Minister cites India's improvement in the Ease of Doing Business ranking by 42 places. He mentions the government's schemes for providing free LPG connections and electricity to underprivileged sections. He states that the government has eliminated middlement in the direct benefit transfer programme.

11 A.M.

Lok Sabha proceedings begin. Speaker Sumitra Mahajan is in the Chair. She announces the demise of Lok Sabha member Chintaman Wanga. The House pays silent tribute to the departed MP.

Ms. Mahajan says the Budget will be presented today, despite the usual procedure of the House adjourning for the day to mourn the demise of a sitting member.