Country witnessed its first post – GST (Goods and Service Tax) Budget; Union Budget 2018. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the budget for the year 2018 – 19 in Parliament.
The Budget session 2018 commenced on January 2018 with an economic survey conducted by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian in Lok Sabha.
To know more about the economic survey, you can also read – Economic Survey
Key Takeaways from Arun Jaitley’s Fifth Budget
- In the new budget government has aimed for 2018 – 19’s fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP (Gross Domestic Product). Earlier i.e. Fiscal Deficit for 2017 – 18 was Rs. 5.95 lakh crore or 3.5 per cent of GDP
- Income Tax Slabs remains unchanged in 2018 – 19 budgets. There is no change seen in personal income tax rates for salaried class
- Government health scheme is expected to cover 10 crore poor families as a world’s largest government funded health protection scheme
- Education and health tax has been increased to 4 per cent
- Health insurance benefits for senior citizens has been raised to Rs. 50,000
- The companies with a turnover up to Rs. 250 crore will be taxed at 25 per cent
- Government will also contribute 12 % of salary towards EPF (Employee Provident Fund)
- Apart from that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley also announced that nearly 5 lakh wifi hotspot will be set up in rural areas in order to provide easy internet access
- He also said that 4,000 km of new railway track will be laid down by 2019
- Relief for MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) as they will witness a lot of growth from this budget. Jaitley added that “mass formalisation of MSME sector is happening after demonetisation and GST (Goods and Service Tax)
- As per the today’s budget announcement, nearly 60 crore bank accounts will be open under the Jan Dhan Yojana
- Also, budget 2018 – 19 will be focused on strengthening the agriculture and rural economy. Government has also added that it will fix support price of Kharif crops by focusing on the agriculture stock