The Budget for 2019 was on expected lines with sops given to almost all sections. Here are the highlights given below.
Income Tax reliefs:
- No tax for those whose taxable income is less than Rs 5 lakh.
- Standard deduction increased to Rs 50,000 from Rs 40,000 for salaried class
Tax exemptions on investments:
- Individuals with gross income up to 6.5 lakh rupees will not need to pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities.
- TDS threshold for home rent increased. from Rs 1.8 lakh to 2.4 lakh
- Interest income up to Rs 40,000 in post offices and banks made tax free
- Capital gains tax exemptions under Section 54 to be available up to Rs 2 crore. Capital gains exemption to be available on 2 house properties.
- Income tax relief on notional rent from unsold houses extended to 2 years from 1 year
Other tax related reliefs:
- Income Tax returns to be processed within 24 hours and refunds will be paid immediately.
- Within nearly two years, almost all assessment and verification of IT returns will be done electronically by an anonymised tax system without any intervention by officials.
For farmers:
- Rs 6,000 per year assured income support for small and marginal farmers.
- Farmers having up to 2 hectare of lands will get Rs 6,000 per year in three equal instalment. The scheme will be effective from December 1, 2018.
- Interest subvention for farm loan takers: Farmers affected by natural calamities to get 2% interest subvention and additional 3% interest subvention upon timely repayment
- 2% interest subvention to farmers who pursue animal husbandry, fisheries jobs through Kisaan credit cards
- Kamdhenu scheme for animal husbandry.
GST:
- Group of Ministers to suggest ways to reduce GST for house buyers
- Direct tax collections increased from Rs 6.38 lakh crore in 2013-14 to almost Rs 12 lakh crore; The tax base is up from Rs 3.79 crore to 6.85 crore.
- Businesses with less than Rs 5 crore annual turnover, comprising over 90% of GST payers, will be allowed to file quarterly returns
- Indian Customs to fully digitised exim transactions and leverage RFID for logistic. Govt abolishes duties on 36 capital goods
- GST collections in January 2019 has crossed Rs 1 lakh crore
Sops for workers:
- Rs 3,000 per year pension for unorganised sector workers
- New Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana for unorganised sector workers with income up to Rs 15,000 per month. Beneficiaries will get Rs 3,000 per month pension with a contribution of Rs 100 per month after retirement. Govt allocates Rs 500 crore for the scheme
- Gratuity limit increased for workers to Rs 30 lakh
Rural allocations:
- Rs 60,000 crore for MNREGA
- Rs 19,000 allocated for construction of rural roads under Gram Sadak yojana.
Defence Budget:
- Govt increases defence budget to over Rs 3 lakh crore. Govt will provide additional funds for Defence, if needed.
- We have disbursed 35,000 crore rupees under #OROP scheme in the last few years
Railways:
- Railway's operating ratio seen 96.2% in FY19 Vs 95% FY20.
- Railway capital expenditure for FY20 set at record Rs 1.6 lakh crore
- Today there is not a single unmanned railway crossing on the broad gauge in India.
Fiscal Deficit:
- For FY19, government has revised the fiscal deficit target to 3.4 percent in FY 19. Fiscal deficit for 2019/20 estimated at 3.4 percent of GDP.
- Government's stated commitment earlier was to bring down the fiscal deficit to 3.1 percent of GDP by the end of March 2020, and to 3 percent by March 2021
- Current account deficit at 2.5% of the GDP
For Art
A single window clearance will be made available to filmmakers, anti-camcording provision to also to be introduced in Cinematography Act to fight piracy
Social schemes:
- Govt to build 1 lakh digital villages
- For the welfare of farmers and for doubling their income, historic decision was taken to increase MSP by 1.5 times the production cost for all 22 crops
- To ensure cleaner fuel and health assurance, we embarked upon Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a programme to give 8 crore free LPG connections to rural households, 6 crore connections have been given already
- Committee under NITI Aayog to be set up for denotifed nomadic & semi nomadic communities.
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Source : PTI
