Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget for 2017-18 on Wednesday, with 10 broad themes and for the first time, incorporating the budget for railways
By PTI
Photo by Manvender Vashist/PTI Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on the eve of the Budget Session at Parliament House in New Delhi on Monday
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget for 2017-18 in Parliament on Wednesday. The focus of the budget is on 10 sectors—farmers, rural population, youth, poor and under-privileged, infrastructure, financial sector, digital economy, public service, prudent fiscal management, tax administration. Notable points were higher allocations for farm loans, reduced tax rates and changes in political party funding.
Highlights
Total expenditure pegged at ₹21.47 lakh crore
Capital expenditure up 24%; to have multiplier effect
Direct Tax collection growth 15.8%, indirect tax 8.3%
Fiscal deficit pegged at 3.2% next year, 3% in FY'19
Disinvestment target at ₹72,500 crore, up from ₹56,500 crore
Gross market borrowing pegged at ₹6.05 lakh crore
Allocation to states hiked to ₹4.11 crore
FRBM Committee suggests Debt-GDP ratio of 60% by 2020
Retail inflation to remain within 2-6%
FDI increased 35% to ₹1.45 lakh crore in H1 FY'17
Allocation of ₹2.41 lakh crore rail, road, shipping to create jobs, spur economic activity
Taxation
Tax rates halved to 5% for income of ₹2.5-5 lakh, tax slabs unchanged
10% surcharge on people earning between ₹50 lakh-1 crore
15% surcharge on annual income above ₹1 crore to continue
Cash transactions above ₹3 lakh to banned
Corporate tax for SMEs with turnover up to ₹50 crore cut to 25%; 96% companies to benefit
Tax benefits for start-ups to be for 3 out of 7 years
3-year period for long-term capital gains tax on immovable property reduced to 2 years; base year indexation shifted from April 1, 1981 to April 1, 2001
Political party funding
Political parties barred from accepting cash donation beyond ₹2,000 per individual
Political parties can receive donations via cheques, electronic mode; electoral bonds to be issued by RBI
Railways
Railway PSUs—IRCTC, IRFC, IRCON to be listed
Capital expenditure of Railway fixed at ₹1.31 lakh crore
Rail safety fund of ₹1 lakh crore over 5 years, unmanned level crossing to be eliminated by 2020
New metro rail policy to be announced
Financial Sector
Payment Regulatory Board to be set up within RBI to regulate digital payments
Negotiable Instruments Act to be amended to deal with cheque bounce cases
Legislative changes to confiscate of assets of economic offenders who flee country
Service charges on e-tickets booked via IRCTC waived
FIPB to be abolished; further FDI policy liberalisation
FPI to be exempt from indirect transfer provision
Duty exempted on POS machines and Iris readers for encouraging digital payments
Agriculture and allied
Farm sector to grow at 4.1% this fiscal, to double farm income in five years
Farm credit target for next fiscal at ₹10 lakh crore
Fasal Bima Yojana increased to 40% of crop area; raised to ₹1.41 lakh crore in Kharif 2017 season
To double irrigation fund corpus to ₹40,000 crore
Long-term irrigation fund has been proposed to be set up in NABARD with an additional corpus of ₹20,000 crore
₹1.87 lakh crore allocated to rural, agri, allied sectors
Dairy processing fund with ₹2,000 crore corpus to be set up
Energy
Customs duty of LNG halved to 2.5%
New crude oil reserves proposed at Odisha and Rajasthan; to take strategic reserve capacity to 15.33 mmt
Integrated public sector oil major to be created to match global giants
Infrastructure
Infrastructure investment pegged at ₹3.96 lakh crore
Infrastructure status accorded to affordable housing
Road sector allocation hiked to ₹64,000 crore
100% village electrification to be achieved by May 2018
Social sector
Highest ever allocation of ₹48,000 crore to MNREGA
₹1.84 lakh cr allocated for women, child initiatives
1 crore houses by 2019 for homeless
PM Awas Yojana allocation up from ₹15,000 crore to ₹23,000 crore
₹31,920 crore allocated for Scheduled Tribes, ₹4,195 crore minority affairs, outcome-based budgeting to start
Aadhaar-based health cards for senior citizens; a scheme for them to ensure 8% guaranteed returns
2 new AIIMS to come up in Jharkhand, Gujarat
Innovation Fund to be created for Secondary Education