Budget 2018 highlights: Arun Jaitley begins speech, says structural reforms will help Indian economy become the fifth largest in the world very soon.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley unveiled the Union Budget 2018 in Parliament on Thursday amid expectations of increased spending to boost growth in the Indian economy.
In his speech, Jaitley said Budget 2018 will focus on agriculture and rural economy, health, infra, senior citizens.
He said structural reforms will help the Indian economy become the fifth largest in the world very soon.
Here are the highlights of Arun Jaitley’s speech:
Tax
* No changes in the structure of income tax of individuals.
* 100% tax deduction for the first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs. 100 crore and above.
* 41% more returns were filed this year, which shows that more people have joined the tax net.
*Tax Payer base has risen from 6.47 crore in 2014-15 to 8.27 crore in 2016-17. More payers joining tax net but turnover not encouraging, says Jaitley.
* Demonetisation was received by honest taxpayers as ‘Imaandaari ka utsav’.
Fiscal deficit
Revised fiscal deficit estimate for 2017-18 is 3.5% of GDP, fiscal deficit of 3.3% expected for 2018-19.
Digital India
* 1 lakh Gram Panchayats connected to optic fibre completed.
* Will take all steps to eliminate the use of Crypto-Currencies, will explore use of Blockchain technology in payment systems: FM Jaitley
Rail budget
* Rs 1,48,528 crore is the capital expenditure for the Indian Railways for 2018-19… All trains to be progressively provided with WiFi, CCTV and other state-of-the-art amenities.
* All railways stations with more than 25,000 footfall to have escalators.
12,000 wagons, 5160 coaches and 700 locomotives being procured. There is significant achievements of physical targets by Railways : Arun Jaitley
* Focus will be on safety, maintenance of railway tracks, increase in use of technology and fog safety devices: FM Jaitley
* Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations has been taken up; Mumbai transport system is being expanded; suburban network of 160 km planned for Bengaluru: FM
* Foundation stone of the bullet train was laid in September 2017. An institute is coming up in Vadodara to train the manpower required for the high speed railway projects: FM Jaitley.
36,000-km of rail track renewal targeted in coming year: FM Arun Jaitley
Agriculture/Farm
* Agri-Market Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 2000 crore to be set up for developing agricultural markets.
* Grameen Agricultural Market (GRAM) will provide farmers a means to sell directly to buyers.
* The focus is on low-cost farming, higher MSP. Emphasis is on generating farm and non-farm employment for farmers.
* I am very happy to announce that minimum support price has been set at 1.5 times the production cost for kharif crops: Jaitley
* The government will ensure payment of full MSP even if farmers sell below MSP.
* The Minimum Support Price of all crops shall be increased to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost.
Health
* National health protection scheme for 10 crore poor families with 50 crore beneficiaries by providing Rs 5 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation. This is the world’s largest health programme.
* Rs 1,200 crore for the flagship programme in health wellness centres.
Women
* Contribution of 8.33% to EPF for new employees by the govt for three years and 12% govt contribution to EPF in sectors employing large number of people: Arun Jaitley
* 76% of MUDRA loans for women.
*Government proposes to increase the target of providing free LPG connections to 8 crore to poor women: FM Jaitley
Education
* 4 new government medical colleges and hospitals to be set up by upgrading existing district hospitals.
* One medical college per every three Parliamentary constituencies.
* 1,000 best BTech students to be made PM research fellows — to do PhDs in IITs and IISc. They will spend few hours every week teaching in technical institutions.
* Eighteen new schools of planning and architecure will be set up… I propose railway university in Vodadara.
* Government to launch ‘Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education by 2022: FM Jaitley
* Integrated B.Ed programme to be initiated for teachers, to improve quality of teachers.
* Technology will be the biggest driver in improving education.
* Budget 2018 will work with states to provide more resources to improve quality of education, says Jaitley.
India growth
* Indian economy is on course to achieve high growth of 8%. Economy to grow at 7.2-7.5% in second half of 2018-19: FM Jaitley.
* India grew at an average of 7.5% in the first three years since 2014. It is now a $2.5 trillion economy: Jaitley.
* Indian economy has performed very well since our government took over in may 2014. It is now the seventh largest in the world, says finance minister Arun Jaitley.
Infrastructure
* To spend 14.34 trillion Indian rupees ($225.50 billion) on rural infrastructure
For poor, backward and vulnerable
*By 2022, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have ‘Ekalavya’ school at par with Navodaya Vidayalas: FM Jaitley.
* Allocation of Rs. 56,619 crore for SC welfare and Rs. 39,135 crore for ST welfare: FM Jaitley
Connecting India
* Bharatmala project approved for better road connectivity at Rs 5.35 lakh crore.
* UDAN will connect 56 unserved airports in India.
* Airports Authority of India now has 124 airports, this will be expanded by 5 times. Aim of 1 billion trips a year: Arun Jaitley.
Other proposals
* Total 187 projects sanctioned under the Namami Gange programme.
* We aim that by 2022, all poor people have a house to live in.
* Government plans to construct 2 crore more toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission: Arun Jaitley
* Air Pollution in Delhi-NCR is a cause for concern, special scheme will be implemented to support governments of Haryana, Punjab,Uttar Pradesh and Delhi-NCT to address it and subsidise machinery for management of crop residue: FM Jaitley
* Proposal to develop 10 prominent tourist destinations as Iconic tourism destinations.
* AMRUT programme will focus on water supply to all households in 500 cities. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth 19,428 core awarded.
* Emoluments of the President to be revised to Rs 5 lakh per month & emoluments of the Vice-president to be revised to Rs 4 lakh per month: Arun Jaitley
* Government is proposing changes in refixing salaries of MPs. Law will provide automatic revision of emoluments of the MPs every 5 years indexed to inflation: FM Jaitley
Voice of India 