Union Budget 2018-19: Highlights

Dear Aspirants,

It is very important for you to get updates on The Union Budget 2018-19. This will be the last full Union Budget to be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the session of Parliament and it will be unlike his previous four such exercises because of the complete overhaul of the indirect tax regime affected by implementing the Goods and Services Tax (GST) last year.

The Budget, to be the last for this government in view of the general elections due in the first half of 2019, may have two main components: The first part deals with new schemes and outlays for various existing schemes and sectors for the coming fiscal, while the second contains announcements on direct and indirect taxes. With the implementation of single tax regime GST, this year's budget is believed to take into account only those items that still remain outside the purview of GST. It is highly expected that 2018-19 budget could contain changes in customs and excise duties on these remaining products, which for most others have been subsumed under GST. For the rest, you'll have to watch this space for the review of Union Budget 2018-19.

Top Developments

1.      No changes in personal income tax slabs.

2.    Salaried tax payers to get a standard deduction of Rs.40,000 in lieu of transport allowance and "other medical expenses"

3.    Rs.2,000 crore fund for development of agri markets

4.    All senior citizens will now be able to claim benefit of a deduction of Rs.50,000 for any medical insurance.

5.     For critical illnesses, the deduction has been increased to ₹1,00,000.

6.    Free power connections to 4 crore homes under the Saubhagya Yojana

7.     8 crore free gas connection for poor women through Ujjwala Yojana

8.    Govt. to implement Minimum Support Price for all crops; It is hiked to 1.5 times of production costs

9.    Govt to contribute 12% of wages of new employees for all sectors.

10. New flagship National Health Protection Scheme, providing a health insurance cover of Rs.5 lakh per family per year announced

11.  Railway capex for the year 2018-19 set at Rs.1.48 lakh crore

12.Disinvestment target for this year set at Rs.80,000 crore

13.Automatic revision of emoluments Parliamentarians every five years, pegged to inflation

THE  highlights from Budget 2018 :

• As per the FM in the Union Budget, India is expected to become the fifth largest economy very soon. 
• The Growth rate is expected between 7.2-7.5% in the second half of 2017-18.
• Exports are expected to grow 15% in 2018.
• As per the FM, India is a Rs2.5 trillion economy.
• Minimum Support Price (MSP) of all crops shall increase to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost. 
• The government will set up a fund of Rs 2,000 crore for developing agricultural markets.
• Our focus is on productive and gainful on-farm and non-farm employment for farmers and landless families, says Jaitley.
• MSP for Kharif cost will be 1.5 times the cost of production.
• As per the FM, 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.
• Allocation in food production sector doubled to Rs 1400 crore.
• Operation Green will be launched for agriculture and the Minister allocates Rs500 crore for this.
• Agricultural corpus worth Rs 2000 crore will be set up. 470 APMCs have been connected to eNAM network, the rest to be connected by March 2018.
• A fund for the fishery, aquaculture development and animal husbandry will be set up with a total corpus to be Rs 10,000 crore. We will also allocate Rs 1290 crore for a bamboo mission, as it is green gold. 
• In all, we are providing Rs 10 lakh crore to Rs 11 lakh crore as credit for agricultural activities.
• Jaitley proposes to increase the target of providing free LPG connections to 8 crore to poor women.
• Ujjwala Yojana, the free LPG connection scheme expanded to eight crore households.
• Six crore toilets have been built already, and in the next year, two crore additional toilets will be constructed.
• The government will provide 4 crore electricity connections to the poor under Saubhagya Yojana.
• Kisan credit card to be extended to fisheries,animal husbandry farmers.
• The government will establish a dedicated affordable housing fund.
• Loans to self-help groups will increase to Rs75,000 crore.
• Govt. allocated Rs5,750 crore to National Livelihood Mission and Rs2,600 crore to the groundwater irrigation scheme.
• 24 new government medical colleges.
• Government is implementing a comprehensive social security scheme.
• Govt. will initiate an integrated B-Ed programme for teachers.
• Government proposes to launch the Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems of Education (RISE) by next year. 
• Govt. proposed 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.
• Rs. 1 lakh crore over 4 years for initiative for Infrastructure Devt. in education.
• 2 major initiatives as part of Ayushman Bharat program.
• National health protection scheme to cover 10 cr poor families. Health cover of up to 5 lakh per family per year for poor & vulnerable. National health protection scheme to benefit 50 crore people.
• 24 new govt medical college & hospitals.
• Rs. 600 crore for nutritional support to all TB patients.
• Rs. 1200 crore for health and wellness centres.
• Loans to women self-help groups of women to be increased to 75,000 cr by March 19. 
• Govt. is launching a new national health protection scheme – Rashtriya Samaj Beema Yojana. This will have 50 crore beneficiaries and 10 crore families will get 5 lakh per year for their families to cover secondary and tertiary hospital expenses. This is the world's largest government-funded healthcare program. 
• A Rs 600 crore corpus is being set up to help Tuberculosis patients. This will build a new India in 2022 and enhance productivity and will also generate lakhs of jobs for women. 
• PM Jeevan Beema Yojana benefitted more than 2 crore families. 
• Jan Dhan Yojana will be extended to all 60 crore bank accounts. 
• The government increased allocation for SC-ST earmarked programmes: Rs 56,000 crore for SCs and Rs 39,000 crore for STs. 
• By 2022, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have 'Ekalavya' school at par with Navodaya Vidyalas.
• The government will announce measures to address non-performing assets of MSMEs. 
• As per the FM, Rs. 3 lakh crore for lending under is being allocated in FY 19 for PM's MUDRA Yojana.
• Smart city Mission and AMRUT discussed.
• Smart city command control centre discussed.
• Govt to contribute 12% of wages of new employees to EPF for 3 yrs.
• Rs. 7148 crore allocation for the textile sector.
• Govt. will launch a scheme for Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBARDHAN).
• Under the Smart City mission, 99 cities selected with the outlay of Rs. 2.04 lakh crores.
• EPF contribution has been reduced to 8% for the first 3 years of employment and 12% government contribution to EPF in sectors employing a large number of people, however, there will be no changes in employer contribution.
• 10 tourist cities to be developed into iconic tourist destinations.
• 600 railway stations to be redeveloped.
• Over 3600 km railway track renovation targeted in the current year.
• Scheme for revitalizing school infrastructure, with an allocation of 1 lakh crore rupees over four years. Called RISE - Revitalizing Infrastructure in School Education.
• The Bharatmala project has been approved and we are confident of completing 9000 km of highway construction. 
• In Railways, 18,000 kms of doubling of tracks would eliminate capacity constraints. 
• We are moving towards optimum electrification of the railway. Over 3,600 km of track renewal is being targeted in 2018-19.
• 150 km additional suburban railway network at the cost of Rs. 40,000 cr.
• Regional air connectivity scheme shall connect 56 unserved airports.
• Airport capacity to be hiked to handle 1 billion trips per year.
• Training for 50 lakh youth by 2020.
• Govt. to eliminate over 4,267 unmanned level crossings in the next two years. 
• All railway stations and trains will have WiFi and 150 kilometres of additional suburban corridors in being planned. 
• Rs. 17,000 crore is being set aside for Bengaluru Metro. 
• UDAN will connect 56 unserved airports and 36 unserved heliports. 
• Rs 11,000 crore is being allocated for Mumbai Suburban Railways.
• 5 lakh WiFi spots to be installed for benefit of 5 crore rural citizens.
• As per the FM, The Airport Authority of India has 124 airports.
• The government announced AMRUT program to focus on water supply to all households in 500 cities. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth 19,428 core will be awarded.
• Proposal for railway university in Vadodara.
• Niti Aayog to establish a national program to direct efforts in artificial intelligence.
• Department of Science will launch a national program for cyberspace. 
• Allocation of Digital India has been doubled and the government proposes to set up 5 lakh WiFi hotspots. 
• Government does not consider cryptocurrency as legal tender and will work towards eliminating illicit transactions going on through crypto assets.
• Disinvestment target of Rs. 80,000 crore for 2018-19.
• Bank recap to help banks lend additional Rs. 5 lakh crores.
• 24 Public Sector Units to be divested.
• The government will involve a scheme to assign every enterprise a unique ID just like Aadhaar. 
• The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management will come up with debt Exchange Traded Fund. 
• Gold monetisation scheme to be revamped.
• Govt revised fiscal deficit for 2017-18 was Rs 5.95 lakh crore or 3.5% of GDP. Jaitley projects deficit of 3.3% of GDP next fiscal.
• National Logistics Portal as a single online window will link all stakeholders, to be developed by Department of Commerce. 
• Government insurance companies to be merged into a single entity, and subsequently listed in the stock exchange, as part of the disinvestment programme.
• Target for 2017-18 has been exceeded and will reach Rs 1 lakh crores.
• Salaries of President, VP and Governors will be increased. Rs. 5 lakh for President, Rs 4.0 lakh for VP and Rs 3.5 lakh for governors. Salaries of Members of Parliament will also be raised. 
• A new law will be introduced that will automatically revise MPs' emoluments every five years, indexed to inflation.
• Govt. announced a Rs 150 crore fund to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
• Rs 11,000 crores will be allocated to Mumbai rail network. 
• GST revenue for only 11 months, instead of the usual 12 months, is 21.5 lakh crore. 
• Tax buoyancy for 2017-18 is at 2.11%. 
• Number of tax payers has increased from 6.47 lakh crores to 8.27 lakh crores.
• Government to set up two industrial defence industrial development corridors in 2018-19.
• 100% tax deduction for farmer production firms with 100 cr turnover.
• 100% tax deduction for the first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs 100 crore and above. 
• 12.6% growth in direct taxes in 2017-18.
• 18.7% growth in indirect taxes in 2017-18. 
• Employment-based tax incentives will be extended to footwear and leather industry. 
• The benefits of corporate tax by bringing down the tax rate to 25% for firms that reported turnover up to Rs 250 crores.

              

• No change in income tax slabs, but assesses can avail of a standard deduction of Rs40,000.
• Long term capital gains over Rs. 1 lakh to be taxed at the rate of 10%.
• Railway Capital Expenditure is set at Rs. 1.48 lakh crore.
• All stations and trains to have WiFi.
• Relief on tax for senior citizens from income coming from bank interest increased from 10,000 to 30,000. 
• Fixed Deposit/Post office interest to be exempt till Rs 50,000 {80D benefit enhanced to Rs 50,000 (from 30,000)}.
• Short-term capital gains taxed at 15% to continue for a one-year hold period.
• Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 with respect to transport reimbursements. 
• Standard deduction is in lieu of travel and medical expense reimbursement, which amounts to Rs 30,000. So the actual tax benefit would Rs 10,000 for each taxpayer. 
• Customs duty increased on mobile phones from 15% to 20%.
• 4% health and education cess; currently it's 3%.
• Estimates 1.38 trillion rupees expenditure on health, education and social security. Railway capital expenditure set at 1.49 trillion rupees for 2018/19.