Union Budget Highlights 2018-19

Union Budget Highlights 2018-19

• No changes in income tax slabs or rates: Finance Minister
• Personal Income Tax rates unchanged; Rs. 40k standard deduction in lieu of present exemption: FM
• Senior citizens can claim benefit of reduction Rs. 50,000/ year w.r.t any general health expenditure and health insurance premium: FM
• Rs 40,000 standard deduction to salaried people: FM
• Companies with turnover of upto Rs. 250 cr to be taxed at 25%: FM
• Made many positive changes in personal income tax rates in the past years; no change in Income Tax slabs this year : FM Arun Jaitley
• 100% tax deduction for first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs. 100 crore and above: FM
• 12.6% growth in direct taxes in 2017-18; 18.7% growth in indirect taxes in 2017-18: Finance Minister
• Revised fiscal deficit estimate for 2017-18 is 3.5% of GDP, fiscal deficit of 3.3% expected for 2018-19: FM
• MP salaries to be revised with effect from 1 April, 2018. It will increase every 5 years indexed to inflation: FM
• Emoluments of President to be revised to Rs 5 lakh per month and emoluments of Vice-president to be revised to Rs 4 lakh per month: FM
• Rs 80,000 crore disinvestment target for 2018-19; target for 2017-18 exceeded and will reach Rs 1 lakh crore: FM
• Regional Connectivity Scheme ‘UDAN’ shall connect 56 unserved airports and 31 helipads in the country: FM
• Mission on cyber space will be launched in support of establishment of centres of excellence: FM
• Railway stations with more than 25,000 footfalls will have escalators, trains will have WiFi and CCTV services: FM
• Ujjwala Yojana helped millions of poor get free LPG connection: FM
• Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations taken up; Mumbai transport system being expanded; suburban network of 160 km planned for Bengaluru: FM
• Cleaning of river Ganga is of national importance, have sanctioned 187 projects under Namami Gange scheme: FM
• Mass formalisation of MSME sector is happening after demonetisation and GST: FM
• Govt will contribute 12% of wages of new employees in EPF for all sectors for the next 3 years: FM
• 76% of loan accounts are of women and more than 50% belong to SC, ST and OBC under the Mudra Yojana. Rs 3 lakh crore will be lent under Mudra Yojana in 2018-19: FM
• 24 district level colleges will be upgraded: FM Arun Jaitley
• Air Pollution in Delhi NCR is a cause for concern, special scheme will be implemented to support Govts of Haryana, Punjab, UP and Delhi NCT to address it and subsidize machinery for management of crop residue: FM
• Govt plans to construct 2 crore more toilets under swachhbharat Mission: Finance Minister
• Govt. to initiate integration of B.Ed programme for teachers; Centre to start Eklavya schools for ST population: FM
• Govt to subsidise removal of crop residue to tackle problem of pollution due to burning of crop residue: FinMin
• Govt to set up fishery & aquaculture infrastructure fund; also to set up animal husbandry infrastructure fund with a total corpus of Rs. 10,000 crore
• Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents Budget 2018 in Parliament
• MSP of crops shall be increased to 1.5 times that of the production cost: FM Arun Jaitley in LokSabha
• Manufacturing sector is back on growth path; Exports are expected to grow by 15% in 2017-18 : Finance Minister
• With the introduction of the GST, the indirect tax system has been made simpler: FM
• We pledged to give India an honest and clean govt; we promised to reduce poverty and create strong and New India: FinMinIndia
• Govt has successfully implemented series of structural reforms as a result of which India is one of the fastest growing economies of the world
• FDI has gone up and it is easier to do business in India; Indian economy is now a 2.5 trillion economy: FinMin
• We hope to grow at 7.2% – 7.5% in second half of 2017-18; We are on track to grow at 8% and good governance is our priority: FM