Budget 2018 Live Updates: India Expects a Populist Budget

Union Budget of India for FY 201819 will be a key factor in 2019 Lok Sabha Elections. Amidts high expectations of a Populist budget, Arun Jaitely begins his budget speech at Lok Sabha. Live updates from the Budget 2018 speech.

11.03 am – Budget speech begins. From Fragile Five we have moved to Fastest growing economies in the world with structural reforms. Premium on honesty for citizens. GST, Insolvency code and demonetization biggest achievement of the government in structural reforms.

11.07 am – India is expected to become 5th largest economy in the world soon. GDP growth signals turnaround, manufacturing sector is back on growth path, exports to grow at 15% and service sector is back on growth with 8%

11.09 am – After ease of doing business we are now focusing on ease of living for the citizens of India. Direct benefit transfer is a global success story. Cost reduction for farmers is our emphasis.

11.12 am – Highest production in agriculture. MSP at 1.5 times the cost will be fixed for crops other than Rabi as well. Government with Niti Aayog will create an institutional mechanism to ensure that farmers get their MSP.

11.18 am – Cluster model to be implemented for horticulture crops in districts similar to industrial clusters.

Budget Allocation – Farms in Focus

11.21 am – Operation green for Tomato, Onion and potato price regulation with allocation of Rs. 500 crores.

11.22 am – Kisan credit card to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers. National Bamboo Mission to promote bamboo sector.  To encourage solar power generation by farmers.

11.23 am – Fishery and aquacluture investment fund and animal husbandry infrastructure fund with corpus of Rs. 10,000 cr.

11.25 am – Delhi pollution, machinery to control this pollution to be subsidized and better management of crop residue to be ensured.

Common Man in Focus

11.27 am – 8 cr women to be covered in Ujjwala yojana. Free electricity connection to 4 cr houses with allocation 16,000 cr under PM Saubhagya Yojana

11.28 am – Swacch Bharat, 6 cr toliets built in the country. 2 cr more toilets to be built this year.

11.29 am – Housing for all by 2022 with Awas Yojana, 2017-18 rural 51 lakhs and 2018-19 51 lakhs houses. Dedicated affordable housing fund by the government.

11.31 am – Rural infrastructure in focus – Rs.  14.34 lakh crores from budgetary and non budgetary resources.

11.36 am – 1 lakh crore for education.

11.39 am – Swastha Bharat, 1.5 lakh health and wellness centres, 1200 crores for this flagship program. Centers can be adopted by companies under CSR initiatives.

MEGA HEALTH INITIATIVE

11.40 am – National Health protection scheme for 10 cr poor and vulnerable families with 50 cr beneficiaries by providing them upto 5 lakh per year for secondary and  tertiary  treatment. World’s largest health program.

11.43 am – Gobardhan Yojana to effectively utilize cattle-dung.

11.45 am – Sukanya Samridhi scheme had 1.26 cr accounts by Nov 2017.  187 projects sanctioned under Namami Gange.

MSME and Employment

11.48 am – 10.38 cr MUDRA Loans disbursed. 3 lakh cr allocation for lending under the scheme for FY 201819.

11.52 am – 12% of wages for new employee under EPF for all sector under PMRPY scheme. EPF Act  to be amended, employee contribution to be reduced for new women employees to 8% for first 3 years. This will increase take home salary.

INFRASTRUCTURE

12.01 pm – All trains to have cctv and wifi. Stations with footfall more than 25000 passengers will have escalators.

12.04 pm – Domestic air traffic grew by 18%. UDAN scheme shall connect 56 unserved airports. Airport capacity to be expanded to 1 billion trips per year.

12.09 pm – BLOCKCHAIN technology to be used for digital economy.

12.10 pm – 5.97 lakh crore against 4.94 lakh cr on infrastructure for FY 201819

12.14 pm – National Insurance, Oriental Insurance and United India Assurance companies to be merged.

12.15 pm – Receipt of 1 lakh cr from disinvestment program.

12.20 pm – Emoluments for President, Vice President and Governors to be revised. Allowances for MPs to be reformularized. Automatic revision of emolument every 5 years with inflation index.

FISCAL POSITION

12.21 pm –  Revised estimates of expenditure 21.57 lakh cr against original estimate of 21.47 lakh cr.

12.22 pm – Revised Fiscal Deficit FY 2017-18 3.5% of the GDP. Fiscal deficit target of 3.3% for FY 201819.

TAX PROPOSALS

12.24 pm – Direct tax growth rate of 12.6% in current year. Number of effective tax payers increased to 8.27 crores.

12.26 pm – Presumptive scheme for traders with annual turnover less than 2 crores and for Professionals with less than 50 lakhs.

12.29 pm –  30% additional deduction of salary under section 80JJA was given last year. Employment period relaxation to 150 days for leather and footwear industry.

12.30 pm – Reduction of corporate tax was announced for companies with turnover less than 50 cr. This turnover limit will be enhanced to 250 cr turnover reported in FY 2016-17. Big thumbs up for MSME. Covering 99% of the companies. Revenue foregone will be 7000 cr for FY 201819.

12.35 pm – No change in Income Tax rates. Salaried tax payers will have standard deduction of Rs. 40,000 ona ccount of transaport and medical allowance. Revenue foregone will be 8000 cr. 2.5 crore will be benefitted.

12.36 pm – Senior Citizen – Exemption from interest on bank accounts, fixed deposits and other deposits to Rs. 50,000. 80D limit to be enhanced to Rs. 50,000. 80DDP limit to be enhanced to 1 lakh.

12.38 pm – Pradhan mantri vaya vandana yojana – investment limit to be enhanced to Rs. 15 lakh per senior citizen.

12.39 pm – Long term capital gains on listed equity shares exceeding Rs. 1 lakh without indexation will be taxed at 10%. If equity purchased six months before 31 jan 2018 and highest price quoted for share will be taken as purchase price.

12.43 pm – Cess to be increased to 4% on tax payable.

12.45 pm – Make in India – Increase in customs duty on mobile phones and other electronics import.

12.46 pm – Customs on raw cashew decreased.

Finance Minister closes his Budget Speech.

Overall a budget focused on MSME and Employment. Health protection will be something to watch out for. No relaxation on Petrol Diesel prices. Partially populist Budget!