New Delhi (PTI): HIGHLIGHTS
*No change in personal income tax slabs and rates
*Surcharge of 10% on income above Rs 50 lakh but less than Rs 1 cr, 15% on income above Rs 1 cr to continue
*Standard Deduction returns after a decade; Rs 40,000 to be allowed in lieu of transport allowance and medical expenses
*Economic growth pegged at 7.2-7.5% for H2 FY18
*India’s average growth in first 3 years of NDA govt 7.5%
*Indian economy size USD 2.5 trillion; 7th largest in world
*India is expected to be 5th largest economy very soon
*Revised Fiscal Deficit estimate for 2017-18 is Rs 5.95 lakh crore at 3.5% of GDP
*Fiscal Deficit for FY ’19 estimated at 3.3% of GDP
*Govt’s market borrowing estimated at Rs 4.07 lakh cr in FY ’19 versus Rs 4.79 lakh cr estimated in 2017-18
*MSP of all kharif crops to be hiked to at least 1.5 times of their production cost
*Institutional mechanism proposed to develop policies and practices for price and demand forecast
*Rs 2,000 cr fund for developing and upgrading agri marketing infra in 22,000 Grameen Agri Markets and 585 APMCs
*Allocation for food processing ministry doubled from Rs 715 cr in RE FY ’18 to Rs 1,400 cr in BE FY ’19
*Kisan Credit Cards extended to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers
*Agriculture credit disbursal target increased to Rs 11 lakh crore from Rs 10 lakh crore in 2017-18
*Steps announced to deal with air pollution in the Delhi-NCR region
*2 crore more toilets to be built under Swachh Bharat Mission
*Substantial increase in allocation of National Rural Livelihood Mission to Rs 5,750 cr in FY ’19
*Govt announces 2 major initiatives under Ayushman Bharat programme
*Govt to launch a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover over 10 cr poor families providing coverage up to Rs 5 lakh per family every year for hospitalisation
*Govt earmarks Rs 56,619 cr for SCs and Rs 39,135 cr for STs in FY ’19
*Sets target of Rs 3 lakh crore for lending under MUDRA
*Govt to contribute 12% of wages of the new employees in EPF for all sectors for 3 years
*Facility of fixed-term employment will be extended to all sectors
*Outlay of Rs 7,148 cr for textiles sector in 2018-19
*Finance Minister to leverage India Infrastructure Finance Corporation to help finance major infrastructure projects
*Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations being taken up
*Suburban network of 160 km in Mumbai at an estimated cost of Rs 17,000 cr being planned
*Gross budgetary support for Railways hiked to over Rs 3 lakh crore in 2018-19 from Rs 2.73 lakh crore in 2017-18
*Plans to expand airport capacity more than 5 times to handle a billion trips a year
*SEBI to consider mandating, beginning with large firms, to meet about 1/4th of their financing needs from bond market
*Allocation on Digital India scheme doubled to Rs 3,073 cr
*Rs 10,000 cr for creation and augmentation of telecom infra
*Government to come out with policy to introduce toll system on ‘pay as you use’ basis
*Proposed expenditure on infra pegged at Rs 5.97 lakh cr as against Rs 4.94 lakh crore in FY ’18
*Govt to evolve a scheme to assign enterprise a unique ID
*Capital of the FCI will be restructured to enhance equity and to raise long-term debt
*DIPAM will come up with more ETF offers, including debt ETF
*Disinvestment target for FY ’19 at Rs 80,000 cr
*Bank recapitalisation to pave way for PSBs to lend additional credit of Rs 5 lakh crore
*Govt to formulate a ‘Gold Policy’ to develop gold as an asset class
*Emoluments of President revised to Rs 5 lakh/month, Rs 4 lakh for Vice President and Rs 3.5 lakh for Governors
*Govt proposes changes to refix salary, constituency allowance, office expenses and allowance payable to Members of Parliament
*The law will also provide for automatic revision of emoluments of MPs every five years indexed to inflation
* Rs 150 cr earmarked for FY ’19 for the activities leading to commemoration of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi
*Growth in direct taxes up to Jan 15, 2018 is 18.7%
*Corporate tax reduced to 25% for firms with turnover of Rs 250 cr in 2016-17
*Interest income exemption on deposits with banks and post offices for senior citizens increased from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000
*Senior citizens will be able to claim benefit of deduction up to Rs 50,000 annually on health insurance premium and/or general medical expenditure incurred
*Govt introduces long-term capital gains on equity market; long-term capital gains over Rs 1 lakh to be taxed at 10%
*Education cess increased to 4% from 3%
*E-assessment of Income Tax Act to eliminate person-to-person contact
*Customs duty on mobile phones increased from 15% to 20%; also on certain parts of TVs to 15%
*Govt makes PAN mandatory for any entity entering into a financial transaction of Rs 2.5 lakh or more
*Food subsidy to rise to Rs 1.69 lakh crore in 2018-19 from Rs 1.4 lakh crore in current year
*Defence outlay raised to Rs 2.82 lakh crore in 2018-19 from Rs 2.67 lakh crore in current year
*Customs duty on crude edible vegetable oils hiked from 12.5% to 30%; on refined edible vegetable oil from 20% to 35%
*Customs duty on perfumes, dental hygiene, after-shave, deodorants, room deodorisers, preparations for use on hair doubled to 20%.