HIGHLIGHTS OF BUDGET 2018-19

In his last full-year budget before a national election that must be held by May 2019, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke of massive spending on rural infrastructure, to win over voters in the countryside where two-thirds of India’s 1.3 billion people live.Facing discontent at home over falling farm incomes and a backlash following policy initiatives that have dented growth, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be aiming to woo rural voters and small business owners in the last full budget before a general election that must be held by May 2019.

• Structural reforms will help Indian economy achieve stronger growth in the medium and the long term. 

• Estimates 2017/18 GDP to grow at 7.2 to 7.5 percent in second half of current fiscal year

• India is already the 7th largest economy in the world, and will become the 5th largest economy very soon 

• Government is ensuring benefits are reaching eligible beneficiaries directly Our emphasis is on generating higher income for farmers

•  India’s Direct Benefit Transfer is the biggest such exercise in the world, has reduced corruption.

• Government to look at cluster-based growth model in agriculture .

• Minimum support price (MSP) of all crops to be increased to at least 1.5 times of production cost.

• Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has benefited the poor; 60,000,000 toilets built so far.Government to spend 14.34 trillion rupees on creation of rural infrastructure in 2018/19.

• Government estimates 1.38 trillion rupees expenditure on health, education and social security for 2018/19.

• Government to soon announce measures to address bad loans of small and medium enterprises.

• Shares of companies in the agricultural sector rally after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley unveiled a slew of initiatives for the rural sector, including liberalising exports of agri commodities as part of 2018/19 budget.

• Budget sets 5.97 trillion rupees on infrastructure and extra budgetary allocation

• SpiceJet Ltd shares up as much nearly 10 percent.

• RBI Act being amended to provide central bank with leeway to manage excess liquidity.

• Government to formulate a comprehensive gold policy, revamp gold monetisation scheme.
   

TAX 

• Government to reduce corporate tax to 25 percent for companies who have reported turnover of up to 2.5 billion rupees.

• 71.5 billion rupees allocated to textile sector.

• No change in personal income tax structure.

• Listed entities to be taxed under long term capital gains tax.

• Tax on distributed income on equity oriented mutual funds to be 10 percent.

• Long term capital gains above 100,000 rupees to be taxed at 10 percent.
• Health and education cess raised to 4 percent.

• Government proposes to raise import tax on mobile phones to 20 percent from 15 percent.

• Government does not consider crypto-currencies as legal tender, will take all measures to eliminate use of crypto assets as part of payment system.