Synopsis: Union Budget 2018-2019

GENERAL:

Finance Minister says: (Partly in English and Hindi)

• Indian economy is now 2.5 trillion dollar economy in the world and expected to become the fifth largest economy very soon.
• We are not only focussing on 'Ease of Doing Business' but also 'Ease of Living'
• Providing upto 5 lakh rupees per family per year for medical reimbursement, under National Health Protection Scheme. This will be world's largest health protection scheme
• We have managed to get children to school but quality of education still a concern
• Govt. to contribute 12% of EPF contribution for new employees in all sectors. Women contribution to EPF reduced to 8% for first 3 years of employment
• The Minimum Support Price of all crops shall be increased to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost
• Allocation for SC welfare - Rs. 56,619 cr and Rs. 39,135 cr for ST welfare
• Government to take all steps to eliminate use of crypto currencies which are being used to fund illegitimate transactions
• Aadhaar goes Corporate - Govt will evolve a scheme to assign a Unique ID for companies too
• Revised emoluments for President - Rs. 5 lakh, Vice President - Rs. 4 lakh and Governor - Rs. 3.5 lakh
• National Insurance Co, Oriental Insurance Co and United Assurance Co to be merged into one entity and subsequently listed

Education:

• To improve quality of teachers, Govt to launch integrated B.Ed programme. The govt aims to move from black board to digital board in schools by 2022
• Scheme for revitalizing school infrastructure, with an allocation of 1 lakh crore rupees over four years. Called RISE - Revitalizing Infrastructure in School Education
• Govt will identify 1000 B-Tech students each year and provide them means to pursue PHDs in IITs and IISc
• One Govt. medical college to be ensured for every 3 parliamentary constituencies by upgrading 24 district-level colleges
• 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 Vidyalas

RAILWAY:

• No change in railway fares

DIRECT TAX:

Individuals:

Tax Slabs remain unchanged as below:

Income up to Rs 2.5 lakh: NIL tax
Income between Rs 2.5 - 5 lakh: Tax at 5%
Income between 5 - 10 lakh: Tax at 20%
Income above Rs 10 lakh: Tax at 30%

• Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for salaried employees in lieu of transport and medical expenses
• Long-term capital gains exceeding Rs. 1 lakh to be taxed at the rate of 10%. Short term capital tax remains at 15%
• For senior citizens, exemption of interest income on bank & post office deposits raised to Rs 50,000
• Senior citizens to get Rs 50,000 per annum exemption for medical insurance under Sec 80D

Corporate:

• 25% tax rate for companies having reported turnover of upto Rs. 250 crores
• 100% tax deduction for the first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs. 100 crore and above

INDIRECT TAX:

• Education and health cess to be increased from 3% to 4%