As the Budget Speech progressed, the Sensex was at 35,716, down 248, at 12.43 pm.
No change in I-T exemptions for individuals. Corporate Tax rate cut to 25 per cent for companies with turnover of Rs 250 crore.
Long term capital gains tax of 10 per cent on all gains of over Rs 1 lakh.
Custom duty on mobile phones increased to 20 per cent from 15 per cent.
Relief to senior citizens: Exemption of interest income on deposit with bank and post offices increased to Rs 50,000; limit of deduction from Rs 30,000 to Rs 50,000 under Sec 80-D in respect of health insurance premium; limit of medical expenditure in critical illness raised up to Rs 1 lakh under sec 80-DDB.
Proposed 100 per cent tax deduction to companies registered as farmer production companies and having a turnover of Rs 100 crore.
Number of effective taxpayers has increased to Rs 8.27 crores. Excess revenue from personal income tax now amounts to Rs 90,000 crore.
Growth rate for direct taxes was 12.6 per cent in current year.
Total expenditure was Rs 21.57 lakh crore against budgeted estimate of Rs 21.47 lakh crore for 2017-18.
Rs 150 crore for activities leading to commemoration of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi to be held from 2nd Oct 2019-20.
Emoluments of President, vice-President, Governor revised to Rs 5 lakh, Rs 4 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh per month. (Announcement leads to a din in the Parliament.) Starting 1 April 2018, automatic revision of MPs’ emoluments every 5 years, indexed to inflation.
Bank recap to help banks lend additional Rs 5 crore.
Assuming a receipt of 1 lakh crore for disinvestment for 2017-18.
Government places on record its appreciation for the sacrifices of soldiers in protection of the nation. Opened private investment in defence production. Proposed two defence industrial production corridor in country.
Government does not consider cryptocurrencies as legal tender. Government will explore use of blockchain technology for ushering in digital economy.
UDAN shall connect 56 un-served airports and 31 un-served helipads in India. Operations have started at 16 such airports.
“Sarkar ki is pehal se hawayi chappal pehenne wale bhi hawayi yatra kar sakenge,” says Jaitley.
All trains to have WIFI and CCTVs; 150 km additional suburban railway network at cost of Rs 40,000 crore; 600 Railway stations to be redeveloped. Rs 11000 crore for expanding Mumbai’s local railway network.
Maintenance of track infrastructure is being given special attention. Increasing use of technology, fog-safe train protection and warning system. Elimination of unmanned railway crossing in next two years.
Rs 1,48,528 crore capital expenditure for Indian Railways in 2018-19.
Ambitious Bharat Mala project approved. To develop 35,ooo km in phase 1 at estimate Rs 5,35,000 crore.
Rohtang tunnel completed to provide all-weather access to Ladakh; Tunnel construction under Zoji-La pass progressing well; Construction of new tunnel under Sela pass in Arunachal Pradesh.
Government to contribute 12 per cent of wages of new employees in EPF for 3 years.
All villages along the Ganga declared open defecation free.
24 new government medical college and hospitals; coverage of PM Jan Dhan Yojna.
National Health Protection, a flagship scheme, launched to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, which is approximately 50 crore beneficiaries, by providing them up to Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisations. It is the world’s largest government funded healthcare programme.
National Health Policy 2017: 1.5 lakh centres providing healthcare facilities to people. Rs 1200 crores committed for the flagship programme.
Propose to treat education holistically without segmentation from pre-nursery to class 12. Initiate integrated B Ed programme for training of teachers. Proposal made to increase digital integration in education. Centre to start Eklavya schools for ST population.
The government aims to give poor their own homes by 2022. In 2017-18, 51 lakh and in 2018-19 another 51 lakh homes are being built in rural areas alone.
In the next Financial year, the target is to build 2 crore toilets as part of Swacchh Bharat Mission.
Rs 16,000 crore are being spent for providing electricity to those who have been living without it.
To tackle air pollution in Delhi NCR, scheme to support states of Haryana, Delhi, UP, Punjab for in situ management of crop residue.
Rs 1,290 crore to promote bamboo sector.
Facility of Kisan Credit Cards extended to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers. Minimum Support Price of all crops shall be increased to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost.
Operation Green allocated Rs 500 crores.
Watch the FM speak in Budget 2018-19:
Live Coverage from the Lok Sabha – Union Budget 2018-19 https://t.co/ty740gs010
— Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) February 1, 2018
Corpus of Rs 2,000 crores to be set up for development of agriculture markets to help farmers.
Emphasis is on generating higher income for farmers. Help them realise higher income for produce.
The direct benefit transfer mechanism is a global success story.
India’s economy on course to achieve 8 per cent growth. To grow at 7.2 to 7.5 per cent in second half.
Indian economy has performed very well since our government came to power: Jaitley
There was a time when corruption had become a part of the society. Today our citizens have become aware of the rampant corruption: Jaitley.
Arun Jaitley will be delivering the speech completely in Hindi, a first since Independence.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached the Parliament. He will be attending the Cabinet meeting before Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the Union Budget 2018-19.
FM Arun Jaitley arrives at the Parliament. He alights from his car holding the brown Budget briefcase. Like last year, the Union Budget will include the Railways Budget. In 2017, the government had ended a 92-year long tradition of presenting the two budgets separately.
Budget papers arrive in the Parliament. Huge sacks containing the papers were offloaded from a truck.
Arun Jaitley meets President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan before he presents the Budget in the Parliament.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be presenting the Union Budget 2018-19 at 11 am in the Lok Sabha today.
The BJP-led NDA government will be presenting the last full Budget before the nation heads to polls in 2019.
It is also the first Union Budget since the government announced the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It is expected that the Budget will have a populist touch given the upcoming elections.
Read More: Union Budget 2018-19: Arun Jaitley meets President Kovind
While it will highlight the economic achievements of the ongoing financial year, Jaitley will also spell out the plans the government has with regard to India’s economy, including expenditure and revenue.
In anticipation, the Sensex opened on a positive note jumping nearly 135 points to 36,100. Nifty also opened at 11,068, up by 40 points.