India is going to witness its first post – GST (Goods and Service Tax) budget; Budget 2018. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is going to present this year’s budget at 11. This budget is expected to provide some relief to the Income Tax and Corporate tax. This year Jaitley is expected to deliver the budget in Hindi. MOS Finance Shiv Pratap Shukla shas stated that “this will be a good budget and will benefit the common man”.
Live Coverage from the Lok Sabha – Union Budget 2018-19 https://t.co/ty740gs010
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) February 1, 2018
Highlights of the Budget
Feb 1, 2018 (12:52 pm) – Budget session 2018 adjourned by the speaker
Feb 1, 2018 (12:49 pm) –
Customs duty on mobile phones increased to 15%. Amendments to customs act being introduced to ease cross-border trade. Now pre-notice consultation to be introduced and penalties if timelines are not adhered to,
Feb 1, 2018 (12:47 pm) –
Long-term capital gains taxed from listed equities exceeding one lakh at 10 percent. Short-term capital gains taxed at 15 percent to continue for a one-year hold period. Education cess has been increased to 4%,
Feb 1, 2018 (12:42 pm) –
India moving towards optimum electrification of railway. Over 3,600 km of track renewal is being targeted in 2018-19. Railway Capital Expenditure is set at Rs. 1.48 lakh crore. More than 4,200 unmanned level crossings to be eliminated in two years. All stations and trains to have WiFi. Rs 17,000 crore allocated for Bengaluru Metro. Rs. 11,000 crore allocated for Mumbai rail network
Feb 1, 2018 (12:33 pm) –
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. Be incentivising MSMEs, we propose to extend the benefits of corporate tax by bringing down the tax rate to 25% for firms that reported turnover up to Rs 250 crore,
Feb 1, 2018 (12:23 pm) –
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. Rs 80,000 crore disinvestment target for 2018-19, target for 2017-18 has been exceeded and will reach Rs 1 lakh crore,
Feb 1, 2018 (12:20 pm) –
Aadhaar has provided identity to Indians. 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 being revamped so that people can open gold deposit accounts in a hassle-free manner,
Feb 1, 2018 (12:15 pm) –
Niti Aayog will establish a national program to direct efforts in artificial intelligence. The Department of Science will launch a national program for cyberspace. The allocation of Digital India has been doubled and the government proposes to set up 5 lakh WiFi hotspots. The government does not consider cryptocurrency as legal tender and will work towards eliminating illicit transactions going on through crypto assets,
Feb 1, 2018 (12:11 pm) –
The Airport Authority of India has 124 airports. We propose to expand this capacity by five times to handle close to 1 Billion trips each year. UDAN will connect 56 unserved airports and 36 unserved heliports. We are ensuring that even those citizens who wear Hawaii chappal can fly in a hawai jahaj (aeroplane),
Feb 1, 2018 (12:08 pm) –
we are eliminating 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,
Feb 1, 2018 (12:04 pm) –
Rs 3,794 crore given to MSMEs last year for mass formalisation. The government will soon announce measures to address non-performing assets of MSMEs. Tax burden on MSMEs will also be reduced. Rs. 3 lakh crore for lending under Mudra to be allocated in FY 19. Govt will fund 12% of wages for new employees of EPF. Women to contribute only 8% to PF in first three years
Feb 1, 2018 (11:58 am) –
Creation of job opportunities has been at the core of policy-making. The government will fund 12% of wages for new employees of Employees’ Provident Fund in all sectors. Take home salary of new women employees to go up in the formal sector. Only 8% PF to be cut in first three years. There is no change in EPF,
Feb 1, 2018 (11:52 am) –
Mass formalization of MSME sector is happening after demonetisation and GST. Rs 3,794 crore is was set aside for MSME last year for mass formalisation. The government will soon announce measures to address non-performing assets of MSMEs. Tax burden on MSME will also be reduced. Rs 3 lakh crore for lending under is being allocated in FY 19 for PM’s MUDRA Yojana. ‘Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems in Education’ will be launched, with a total investment of Rs 1 lakh crore in next 4 years,
Feb 1, 2018 (11:49) –
PM Jeevan Beema Yojana has benefitted more than 2 crore families. The Jan Dhan Yojana will be extended to all 60 crore bank accounts. Our government has 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,
Feb 1, 2018 (11:47 am) –
we are allocating Rs 1 Lakh crore in the next four years to boost Research and Development. We are also coming up with a specialised railway university at Vadodara. Demographic dividend realisation is impossible without proper healthcare. Health and wellness centres to bring healthcare closer and more accessible to people. Rs 1200 crores earmarked for this flagship program under the National Health Policy 2017. Healthcare protection is at a new aspirational level. We are now 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. We are progressing towards Universal Health Coverage,
Feb 1, 2018 (11:43 am) –
Rs 14.34 lakh crore rupees to be spent for rural infrastructure. The allocation for National Livelihood Mission is being increased to Rs 5000 crore. Loans to women self-help groups of women to be increased to 75,000 cr by March 19. Focus of the govt next year will be to provide better livelihood in the rural areas. We now propose to treat education holistically with integration from Class 2 to Class 12. Digital intensity in education will be increased. We will take education from blackboards to digital boards. There will be integrated BEd program to start soon. With teachers training as the main focus,
Feb 1, 2018 (11:38 am) –
In order to tackle the problem of pollution due to burning of crop residue, the subsidy is being removed. The government will work to subsidize the cost of machinery to be procured for combating rising air pollution levels by government of Delhi, Haryana, Punjab for in situ management of the problem. On the other hand, Ujjawala Yojana target is being extended to 8 crore women living below the poverty line. It was earlier at 5 crore. The women will receive a free gas connection. Swachh Bharat has constructed more than 6 crore toilets. 2 crore more toilets is the target in the next two years,
Feb 1, 2018 (11:33 am) –
The government will extend a favourable tax arrangement for farmer organisations. The details will be provided later
Feb 1, 2018 (11:27 am) – Jaitley now switched from Hindi to English and said
A fund for 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. Rs 500 crore is being set aside for Operation Green. In all, we are providing Rs 10 lakh crore to Rs 11 lakh crore as credit for agricultural activities,
Feb 1, 2018 (11:24 am) –
Operation green has been launched on the lines of operation flood. Sum of Rs 500 crore has been allocated for this purpose. This operation will help farmers generate produce. We also propose to extend kisaan credit cards to live stock farmers,
Feb 1, 2018 (11:22) –
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. Allocation for food processing has been doubled from Rs 700 crore to Rs 1400 crore. Allocation is being doubled to boost food processing; specialized agro-processing and financial institutions to be promoted by the Government. Cluster-model approach to be adopted for agricultural production,
Feb 1, 2018 (11:18 am) –
We have placed the emphasis on higher income for farmers. Farm and non-farm employment for farmers' remain the focus. Agriculture produce is on a record high. The government is working on farmers getting 50% more price than cost price. This will go forth to double farmer's income by 2022. We don't work in bits and pieces. We intend to promote MSP so that farmers get complete MSP. The govt will fix a structure in consultation with Niti Aayog and state governments to ensure farmers get MSP even when market prices are lower. MSP for Kharif cost will be 1.5 times the cost of produce
Feb 1, 2018 (11:16 am) – Jaitley also added
Ujjawala yojana has provided crores of free LPG, Saubhagya Yojana has provided power to 4 crore families. Awas Yojana has worked towards providing interest rate relief to mid-level sections. We have worked sincerely without political costs. Direct Benefit Transfer is a global success story. We have controlled stent prices and there has been a production-centric thrust by the government. We have also provided free dialysis facilities for the poor
Feb 1, 2018 (11:10 am) – Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said
When our government took over, our nation was considered a part of the fragile five. We have transformed the nation into the fastest growing economy in the world. We are a $2.5 Trillion economy. As a result of measures taken by the government, there is a premium on honesty. India achieved an average growth of 7.5% growth in the last 3 years. We are the third-largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity and seventh largest economy in the world in terms of growth. Manufacturing sector is back on track and services sector, which is India’s backbone, is performing well. This year’s budget will particularly concentrate on agriculture and rural economy. We will also focus on promoting education and healthcare
Feb 1, 2018 (11:06 am) – The budget session started by paying a tribute to late sitting member Chintaman Vanga who died on January 30. As per the regulations, session should adjourn in a situation like this, however, in case of the presentation of Union Budget, there has been a break from the tradition.
Feb 1, 2018 (11:02 am) – The parliament session began. This is Modi governments first Post GST budget session and last pre – roll budget.
Feb 1, 2018 – Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present his fifth Union Budget which is considered to be the toughest so far as he is going to address farm distress, create jobs, and boost growth while sticking to fiscal prudence and negotiating a tricky GST twist. Budget is strictly monitored by Arun Jaitley in order to push Asia’s third – largest economy.