UNION BUDGET : 2017-18
Finance Minister Arun Jailtely on February 1, 2017 presented the Union Budget for financial year 2017-18 in the Lok Sabha, the first of its kind later doing away with the 92 year old colonial practice of having a separate annual railway budget, This year's Budget also does not have any Plan and Non plan classification and has been advanced by a month to the beginning of February. For the first time a consolidated outcome Budget covering all Ministries and Departments, is being laid along with the Union Budget.
Highlights of Budget 2017-18:
- Income Tax rate cut to 5% for individuals having income between Rs. 2.5 lakh to Rs. 5 lakh.
- 10 pc surcharge on individual income above Rs. 50 lakh and upto Rs. 1cr to make up for Rs. 15,000 cr loss of cut in personal I-T rate.
- 15 pc surcharge on income above Rs. 1 cr to continue.
- Of 3.7 cr individuals who filed tax returns in 2015-16, 99 lakh showed income below exemption limit.
- Revenue deficit reduced to 2.1 pc from 2.3 pc for 2016-17.
- Govt pegs fiscal largest at 3.2 per cent for 2017-18 and 3 percent for next year.
- Functional autonomy of the railways to be maintained.
- 36 pc increase in FDI flow reserves at $361 billion in January enough to cover 12 months needs.
- CAD declined from 1pc last year to 0.3 pc in first half of current fiscal.
- Agriculture sector is expected to grow at 4.1 per cent this fiscal.
- Govt is committed to double farm income in 5 years.
- Mini labs by qualified local entrepreneurs to be set up for soil testing in all 648 krishi vigyan kendras in the country.
- Allocation under MNREGA increased to 48,000 crore from Rs. 38,500 cr, highest ever allocation.
- Rs. 9,000 cr higher allocation for payment of sugarcane arrears.
- Target of agriculture credit fixed at Rs. 10 lakh cr in 2017-18.
- National Testing agency to conduct all examinations in higher educaiton, feeling CBSE and other agencies.
- Govt to set up dairy processing fund of Rs. 8,000 crore over three years with initial corpus of Rs. 2,000 crore.
- 1 cr households to be brought out of poverty under Antodya Scheme.
- Participation of women in MNREGA increased to 55 pc from 45 pc in past.
- Modern law on contract farming will be drafted and circulated to states.
- Dedicated micro-irrigation fund to be created with a corpus of Rs. 5000 crore.
- Space technology to be used for monitoring MNREGA implementation.
- PM Awas Yojana allocation raised from Rs. 15000 cr to Rs. 23,000 cr.
- 100 pc electrification of villages to be completed by May 2018.
- PM Kaushal Kendras will be extended to 600 districts.
- 100 international skill centres to be opened to help people get jobs abroad.
- The allocation for rural agri and allied sector in 2017-18 is record Rs. 1,81,223 crores.
- Two new AIIMS to be setup Jharkhand and Gujarat.
- 1.5 lakh health sub centres to be converted to Health Wellness Centres.
- National Housing Bank will refinance individual loans worth Rs. 20,000 crore in 2017-18.
- Alloacation raised from Rs. 1.56 lakh cr to 1.84 lakh cr for women & child welfare.
- Rs. 500 cr allocated to setup Mahila Shakti Kendras.
- Capital and development expenditure pegged at Rs. 1.31 lakh cr for railways in 2017-18 from Budget.
- Allocation for SCs increased from Rs. 38,833 cr to Rs. 52,393 cr, a rise of 35 %.
- For senior citizens, Aadhaar based health cards will be issued.
- New metro rail policy to be unveiled.
- Service charge on e-tickets booked through IRCTC will be withdrawn.
- Delhi and Jaipur to have solid waste management plants and five more to be setup later.
- Coach Mitra facility to redress grievances related to rail coaches.
- 500 stations will be differently abled by providing lifts and escalators.
- Unmanned railway level crossings to be eliminated by 2020.
- Railway line of 3,500 km to be commissioned in 2017-18 as against 2,800 km in 2016-17.
- Rs. 1 lakh cr corpus for railway safety fund over five years.
- A scheme for senior citizens to ensure 8% guaranteed returns.
- Dedicated micro-irrigation fund to be setup by NABARD to achieve mission of Per Drop, More Crop.
- Digi Gaon will be launched to promote tele-medicine and education.
- Crude oil strategic reserves to be setup in Odisha and Rajasthan apart from 3 already constructed.
- Coverage of Fasal Bima Yojana to go up from 30 pc of cropped area to 40 pc in 2017-18 and 50% next year.
- For transport sector, including railways, road and shipping, government provides Rs. 2.41 lakh crore.
- Allocation of Rs.10,000 cr for Bharat Net project for providing high-speed broadband in Fiscal Year 2018.
- Allocation for national highways stepped up to Rs. 64,000 cr from Rs. 57,676 cr.
- Dispute resolution in infrastructure projects in PPP mode to be institutionalised.
- Rs. 2,74,114 crore allocated for defence expenditure, excluding pension.
- Rs. 86,000 cr for defence capital.
- Govt to further liberalise FDI policy; FIPB to be abolished.
- Over 90% of FDI proposals now processed through automatic route.
- Trade infrastructure Export Scheme to be launched in 2017-18.
- Total allocation for infra at record Rs. 3.96 lakh cr.
- Second phase of solar power development to be taken up with an aim of generating 20,000 MW.
- Rs. 10,000 cr for recapitalisaiton of banks, more funds if needed.
- The shares of railway CPSCs like IRCTC and IRFC to be listed in the market.
- Government to introduce two new schemes to promote BHIM App referal bonus for users and cash back for traders.
- Political parties can receive donations in cheque, electronic mode, electroral bonds to be issued by RBI.
- Maximum amount of cash donation a political party can receive will be Rs. 2000 from any one source as part of effort to clean political funding.
- Capital expenditure stepped up by 25.4 pc in FISCAL Year 2018 over previous year.
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