Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents Budget 2017: All you need to know
Amid protest by Opposition to postpone the presentation of the Union Budget following the death of sitting MP E Ahamed, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley began his Budget speech today.
Key highlights:
- Propose to reduce existing rate of taxation of those with income between 2.5 lakh to 5 lakh from 10 per cent to 5 per cent: FM
- RBI to launch electronic bonds: FM
- An amendment being proposed to RBI Act to enable the issuance of electoral bonds for political funding: FM
- Political parties will be entitled to receive donations by cheque or in the digital mode from their donors: FM
- Maximum cash donation any party can receive will be Rs 2000 from one source: FM
- Tax rate on small firms cut to 25 per cent: FM
- Tax sops extended by three years on overseas borrowings like masala bonds: FM
- RBI Payments Regulatory Board for digital payments announced: FM
- Norms for incentives under affordable housing scheme eased: FM
- Political parties continue to receive most funds through anonymous donations: FM
- SIT has suggested no cash transaction above Rs 3 lakhs. Govt has accepted this: FM
- I propose to reduce basic customs duty on LNG from 5% to 2.5 per cent in 2017-18: FM
- Not to remove Minimum Alternative Tax in 2017-18; Propose to allow a carry forward of MAT for a period of 15 years as against 10 years now: FM
- Income tax for small companies with an annual turn over of 50 crore, now to pay 25 per cent, a five per cent reduction: FM
- Capital gains tax to be exempted, for persons holding land from which land was pooled for creation of state capital of AP: FM
- India largely a tax non-compliant society: FM
- Revenue deficit pegged at 1.9 per cent: FM
- The net tax revenue grew by 17 per cent in 2015-16: FM
- Plan to extend basket of financial instruments to which the capital gains can be invested sans payment of tax: FM
- There is an urgent need to protect the poor from chit fund schemes, draft bill placed in public domain: FM
- Due to demonitisation advance tax on personal Income Tax increased by 34.8 per cent: FM
- Out of 3.7 crore who filed tax returns in 2015-16, only 24 lakh persons showed income above Rs 10 lakh: FM
- Rs 10,000 crore for recapitalisation of banks: FM
- FRBM review committee recommended 3% fiscal deficit for next 3 years: FM
- Increased allocation for scientific ministry to Rs 37,435 cr in 2017-18: FM
- Fiscal Deficit target for 2017-18 is 3.2 per cent: FM
- Total resources being transferred to the states and territories with legislature is Rs 4.11 lakh crore: FM
- Defence expenditure excluding pension at Rs 2.74 lakh crore: FM
- Total expenditure of budget 2017-18 has been placed at Rs 21.47 lakh crore: FM
- Two new schemes to be launched for adoption of BHIM digital payment app: FM
- New ETF with diverse central PSUs to be launched in 2017-18: FM
- LIC scheme for senior citizens with guaranteed 8 per cent return: FM
- Aadhar enabled payment system to be launched soon;Banks have targeted to introduce additional 10 lakh Point-of-Sale terminals by March 17: FM
- Government considering introduction of new law to confiscate assets of offenders who escape the country: FM
- Select airports in tier-II cities to be taken up for operations, development on PPP mode: FM.
- Service charge on e-tickets booked through #IRCTC will be withdrawn: FM.
- Unmanned railway level crossings to be eliminated by 2020: FM.
- Railway line of 3,500 km will be commissioned in 2017-18 as against 2,800 km in 2016-17: FM.
- Rs 1 lakh cr corpus for railway safety fund over five years: FM.
- A scheme for senior citizens to ensure 8 per cent guaranteed returns: FM.
- 35 per cent increase in allocation for SC to Rs 52,393 crore: FM.
- Model Shops and Establishment Bill to open up additional opportunities for employment of women: FM
- For senior citizens, Aadhaar based health cards will be issued: FM.
- 1.5 lakh health sub centres to be converted to Health Wellness Centres: FM.
- Rs 500 cr allocated to set up Mahila Shakti Kendras; Allocation raised from Rs 1.56 lk cr to Rs 1.84 lk cr for women & child welfare.
- PM Kaushal Kendras to be extended to 600 districts; 100 int'l skill centres to be opened to help people get jobs abroad: FM.
- The allocation for rural, agri and allied sector in 2017-18 is record Rs 1,81,223 crore: FM.
- In higher education, we will undertake reforms in UGC, give autonomy to colleges and institutions: FM.
- A system of annual learning outcome in schools to be introduced; innovation fund for secondary education to be set up: FM.
- Sanitation coverage in villages has increased from 42 pc in Oct 2016 to 60 pc, a rise of 18 pc, says FM.
- We propose to provide safe drinking water to 28,000 arsenic and fluoride affected habitations: FM.
- To construct 1 crore houses by 2019 for homeless, PM Awas Yojana allocation raised from Rs 15,000 cr to Rs 23,000 cr: FM.
- 100 pc electrification of villages to be completed by May 2018: FM.
- 27,000 cr on to be spend on PMGSY; 1 cr houses to be completed by 2017-18 for houseless: FM.
- 133-km road per day constructred under #PradhanMantri GramSadakYojana as against 73-km in 2011-14: FM.
- Govt to set up dairy processing fund of Rs 8,000 crore over 3 years with initial corpus of Rs 2,000 crore: FM
- 1 cr households to be brought out of poverty under #AntodyaScheme: FM.
- Participation of women in MNREGA increased to 55 pc from 45 pc in past: FM.
- Modern law on contract farming will be drafted and circulated to states: FM.
- Space technology to be used for monitoring MNREGA implementation: FM.
- Dedicated micro-irrigation fund to be created with a corpus of Rs 5000 crore: FM.
- Market reforms will be undertaken, states will be asked to denotify perishables from Essential Commodities Act: FM.
- Allocation under MNREGA increased to 48,000 crore from Rs 38,500 crore. This is highest ever allocation, says FM.
- Committed to doubling the farm income in 5 yrs: FM.
- Rs 9,000 cr higher allocation for payment of sugarcane arrears: FM.
- Target of agriculture credit fixed at Rs 10 lakh cr in 2017-18: FM.
- Spend more in rural areas, infra, poverty alleviation maintaining fiscal prudence as guiding principle of Budget: FM.
- Plan, non-plan classification of expenditure done away with in the Budget2017-18 to give a holistic picture: FM.
- Total allocation for Rural, Agricultural & Allied sectors for 2017-18 is a record 1,87,223 crore up 24% from last year: FM
- Merger of Railway Budget with #Budget2017 a historic step: FM
- And yet maintain the best standards of fiscal prudence: :FM
- My overall approach while preparing #Budget2017 has been to spend more in rural areas, infrastructure and poverty alleviation: FM
- Effects of demonetisation not expected to spill over to next year: FM
- Firmly believe that GST, Demonetisation, built on JAM, will have an epoch-making impact on the lives of our people: FM
- India continues to stand as a bright spot in the world economic landscape: FM
- Uncertainty around commodity prices, esp. around crude oil, second major challenge:FM
- Demonetisation seeks to create a new normal where in the GDP would be bigger, cleaner and real: FM
- There are positive signs, that point to a positive outlook for the next year: FM
- The pace of remonetisation has picked up and will soon reach comfortable levels : FM
- We are moving from informal to formal economy & the Government is now seen as a trusted custodian of public money: FM
- IMF estimates world GDP to grow at 3.1% in 2016 and 3.4% in 2017: FM
- India has become 6th largest manufacturing country in the world up from 9th place last year: FM
- The advantages of GST for economy in spurring growth. I thank both houses for having passed the bill: FM
- Demonetisation seeks to create a new normal where GDP will be bigger and real: FM
- I am presenting this budget when the world economy faces uncertainty: FM
- Inflation has been controlled and a massive war on black money has been launched: FM
- Our Govt. was elected amidst huge expectations of people, the underlying theme of expectations being good governance: FM
- Expectations included burning issues like inflation and price rise, issue of corruption & crony capitalism: FM
- We have moved from a discretionary administration to a policy-based administration: FM
- Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan addresses Parliament; Arun Jaitley to present Union Budget 2017 shortly
- The Union Budget 2017 session has started.
- Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan addresses Parliament.