1. FIRSTS

• This was the first time The Budget was declared on 1^st February
• First joint budget Railway and Union Budget
• First Paperless budget
• First budget that does away with Plan and non-planned expenditure

2. DIRECT TAX

• Individuals:
  • Income upto 2.5 Lakhs – Nil Tax
  • Income above 2.5 Lakhs to 5 Lakhs – tax reduced to 5% from 10%
  • Income above 50 Lakhs – 10% surcharge

• Corporates:
  • Companies with annual turnover of upto Rs 50 crore – 25% Tax
  • MAT credit allowed for a period of 15 years instead of 10 years

• MIS on Tax Returns Filed:
  • Total number of people filing tax returns – 3.7 crore
  • Income below 2.5 lakhs – 99 lakhs
  • Income between 2.5 lakhs to 5 lakhs – 1.95 crore
  • Income between 5 lakhs to 10 lakhs – 52 lakhs
  • Income above 10 lakhs – 24 lakhs
  • Out of the 76 lakh people with income above 5 lakh, 56 lakhs are salaried class

3. ACTIONS POST DEMONITIZTION

• From 8^th November to 30^th December 2016

Deposits between Rs 2 lakhs to Rs 80 lakhs – 1.09 crore accounts; Average Deposit – Rs 5.03 lakhs

Deposits above Rs 80 lakhs – 1.48 lakh accounts; Average Deposit – Rs 3.31 crore

• Banks have targeted to introduce 10 lakh new PoS terminals by March 2017 and 20 lakh Aadhar based PoS by September 2017
• 125 lakh people have adopted the BHIM app so far.
• A Mission will be set up 2,500 crore digital transactions for 2017-18

4. EASE OF DOING BUSINESS

• Foreign Investment Promotion Board to be abolished in 2017-18
• Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) Category I & II exempted from indirect transfer provision.
• Assesses with receipts upto Rs 50 lakh are given a benefit of paying advance tax in one instalment instead of four under the presumptive taxation scheme

5. Political Funding

• Maximum donation of Rs 2000 in cash from one person
• A donor could purchase electoral bonds from authorised banks against cheque and digital payments only which are redeemable only in the designated account of a registered political party.

6. Disinvestment

• The shares of Railway PSEs like IRCTC, IRFC and IRCON will be listed in stock exchanges.
• The government will continue to use ETF as a vehicle for further disinvestment of shares.
• Divestment of PSUs target – Rs 72500 crores

7. Industry Specific

• Low Cost Housing given the status of Infrastructure
• 100% village electrification by 1^st May 2017..
• To make India a global hub for electronics manufacturing a provision of Rs 745 crores
• Proposed to set up strategic crude oil reserves at 2 more locations
• Rs 10,000 crore for recapitalisation of banks

8. Expenditure

• Total Expenditure – Rs 21.47 lakh crores
• MMREGA – Allocated Rs 48,000 crores
• PMGSY – Allocated Rs 19,000 crores
• Railway Budget – Rs 1.31 lakh crores
• Highways – Rs 67,000 crores
• Defence – Rs 2.74 lakh crores excluding pension

9. ECONOMIC INDICATORS

• Fiscal Deficit – Seen at 3.2% (17-18) & 3% (18-19)
• Current Account Deficit – 0.3% (16-17) 1st Half