Highlights of Union Budget 2017-18

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