- Macroeconomic Matters
- India is a $2.5 trillion economy now.
- India will become the 5th largest economy soon.
- India achieved an average growth rate of 7.5% in the first three years of the government.
- Fiscal Deficit proposed at 3.3% of GDP for FY18-19.
- The government will look to reduce the debt to GDP ratio to 40%.
- Taxation
- Long Term Capital Gains (LTCG) exceeding Rs1 lakh will be taxed at 10% without the benefit of indexation. All gains till 31stJan 2018 will be grandfathered i.e any gain earned after 31st Jan 2018 will be charged at 10% (example if a stock had touched 120 before 31st Jan 2018, and the sale happens at 140, then tax will be on 20 and not on 140).
- Short Term Capital Gains (STCG) will continue to be taxed at 15%.
- Health and Education Cess increased from 3% to 4%.
- Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for the salaried for transport and health.
- Senior citizen deduction for health insurance raised to Rs 50,000.
- To allow 100% deduction to some farmer producer companies.
- Reduced corporate tax of 25% extended to companies with an annual turnover of Rs 250 crore.
- Customs duty on mobile phones raised to 20% from 15%
- Customs duty on raw cashew reduced to 2.5% from 5%.
- Customs duty on some mobile and television parts increased to 15%.
- Divestment
- National Insurance Company, United Insurance Company, United India Assurance and Oriental Insurance will be merged and listed.
- Government to raise more than Rs 1 lakh crore through divestment in the ongoing financial year against a target of Rs 72,500 crore.
- Rural Economy and Agriculture
- To raise minimum support price for kharif season crops to 1.5 times of agricultural production cost i.e that is cost plus 50%.
- Total credit to agriculture target set at Rs 11 lakh crore for FY19.
- Strengthening the e-national agricultural market network.
- The government will spend Rs 14.34 lakh crore on rural infrastructure across various schemes and departments.
- Rs 1,290 crore will be spent on the bamboo sector.
- Food processing sector allocation almost doubled to Rs 1,400 crore.
- Rs 10,000 crore allocated to fisheries, aquaculture and animal husbandry.
- Healthcare
- National Health Protection Scheme for 10 crore families.
- It provides a health cover of Rs 5 lakh per family a year.
- Rs 600 crore to provide nutritional support for tuberculosis patients.
- Education
- To invest Rs 1 lakh crore on education infrastructure over four years.
- To initiate integrated B.Ed programme for aspiring teachers
- Amended RTE Act to train 13 lakh teachers.
- 18 schools of planning and architecture to be set up.
- SC/ST Upliftment
- FY19 allocation for scheduled tribes at Rs 39,135 crore.
- FY19 allocation for scheduled caste allocation at Rs 56,619 crore.
- Infrastructure
- Rs 5.97 lakh crore for infrastructure in FY19 compared with Rs 4.94 lakh crore in the revised estimates of FY18.
- Smart city projects worth Rs 20,852 crore in progress.
- Plan 99 smart cities with outlay of Rs 2.04 lakh crore.
- To complete 9,000 km of National Highways in FY18.
- NHAI to organise road assets into a special purpose vehicle.
- The allocation to roads is Rs 5.35 lakh crore.
- Railways and Air Connectivity
- Railways to get Rs 1.48 lakh crore for capital expenditure to redevelop 600 major railways stations across the country.
- Rs 40,000 crore will be spent on upgrading Mumbai train systems.
- Plan for 160 km suburban rail line in Bengaluru at Rs 17,000 crore.
- Aim to electrify 4,000 km of railway lines in FY19.
- Railway stations with more than 25,000 footfalls to have escalators.
- Regional air connectivity scheme UDAN to connect 56 unserved airports, 31 heliports.
- Digital India
- Government does not consider cryptocurrencies as legal tender.
- One lakh gram panchayats have been connected under BharatNet.
- FY19 allocation for rural telecom set at Rs 10,000 crore.
- To allocate Rs 3,073 crore under Digital India programme.
- Other Schemes
- Free cooking gas aim raised to 8 crore poor households under Ujjwala Scheme.
- Under the ‘Swacch Bharat’ scheme, six crore toilets made so far, aim to make two crore more. To increase spending on rural sanitation.
- Dedicated affordable housing fund to be set up.
- Scheme to combat air pollution in National Capital Region to be launched.
- Rs 7,140 crore is allocated to the textile sector.