Odisha News Insight


Union Budget 2018 – Key Highlights

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By Odisha News Insight 1,466

ONI Bureau:  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget for 2018-19 in Parliament today.

Instead of focusing on appeasement or subsidy to woo the voters in election year, the Modi Government gave more emphasis to development in its last full budget before the next general elections.

Farmers, Healthcare, Education and Rural Sector got more prominence in the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Budget 2018. Budget 2018 will focus on agriculture and rural economy, health, infra, senior citizens.

Key Highlights:

Agriculture

The budget is packed with policies and funds to boost the agricultural sector and it takes care of every aspect of agrarian sector,”

  • Rs 500 Crore for Operation Greet to boost Agriculture. Rs 1,290 Crore to promote bamboo sector in a wholesome manner.
  • Kisan Credit Card extended to Fisheries & Animal Husbandry Farmers . Rs 10,000 Cr allocated to Fisheries & Animal Husbandry.
  • Doubling of food processing budget to Rs 1400 crore.
  • Agri-Market Development Fund with a corpus of Rs 2,000 crore to be set up for developing agricultural markets.
  • Rs 10,000 Crore allocated to Fisheries and Animal Husbandry.
  • Rs 1,290 crore to promote bamboo sector in a wholesome manner
  • The Minimum Support Price of all crops shall be increased to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost.

Health:

  • Rs 1,200 Cr for Ayushman Bharat National Health Policy 2017. PPP and CSR contribution invited.
  • Launching a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, benefiting approximately 50 crore.
  • Providing Rs 5 lakh per family per year for medical reimbursement, under National Health Protection Scheme.
  • Healthcare stocks trading higher after the government said it proposed to cover 100 million families via healthcare protection scheme.
  • Budget 2018 will focus on agriculture and rural economy, health, infra, senior citizens. Rs 1200 crore for the flagship programme in health wellness centres.
  • FM proposes to increase the health and education cess to 4%.
  • 1 Govt. medical college to be ensured for every 3 parliamentary constituencies by upgrading 24 district-level colleges.
  • Rs 16,713 Crore sanctioned for Rural Sanitation . 4,465 villages declared Open Defecation Free (ODF).

Education

  • Eklavya schools to be started for Scheduled Tribe population… Scheme for revitalizing school infrastructure, with an allocation of 1 lakh crore rupees over four years. Called RISE – Revitalizing Infrastructure in School Education.
  • Integrated B.Ed programme to be initiated for teachers, to improve quality of teachers. Technology will be the biggest driver in improving education.
  • Govt to set up two new full-fledged Schools of Planning and Architecture.

Railways

  • All railways stations with more than 25,000 footfall to have escalators. All stations and trains to have Wi-Fi and CCTVs progressively.
  • Rs 1.48 lakh crore allocated to Indian Railways. Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations. 4000 km new railway tracks to be laid by 2019.
  • Suburban network of 160 km planned for Bengaluru and proposed propose railway university in Vodadara.

Taxation

  •  The standard deduction has been raised to Rs 40,000 to the salaried class in lieu of transport and medical reimbursements.
  • 85.51 lakh new I-T Returns filed – more than 5 lakh new Taxpayers. Additional Rs 90,000 crore tax collected.
  • 100% tax deduction for first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs. 100 crore and above.
  • Corporate Tax reduced to 25% for Rs 250 Crore Turnover Companies. 12.6% growth in direct taxes in 2017-18; 18.7% growth in indirect taxes in 2017-18.

Women

  • Ujwala will give 8 crore women new LPG connections.
  • Women’s contribution reduced to 8.33% towards PF in the first 3 years for new EPF accounts
  • For women, for more employment opportunities and increased take-home salaries, the EPF rate has been reduced to 8.33%
  • Loans to self help groups will increase to Rs 75,000 crore by March 2019.

Infrastructure

  • Bharatmala project approved for better road connectivity at Rs 5.35 lakh crore.
  • National Highways exceeding 9,000-km will be completed in 2018-19.

Others

  • Allocation of Rs. 56,619 crore for SC welfare and Rs. 39,135 crore for ST welfare.
  • Rs 14.34 Lakh Cr for rural job creation. Govt focused on creating maximum employment opportunities in rural areas.
  • Rs 3,794 Crore allocated for MSME Sector, as they play a key role in employment generation.
  • Rs 16,000 crore will be spent on providing electricity connection to nearly four crore poor households.
  • Rs 3 lakh crore allocated for MUDRA Yojana, which has received tremendous response.
  • Govt to contribute 12% of EPF contribution for new employees in all sectors for the next 3 years.
  • Rs 7,000 Crore for Textile Sector.
  • 2 crore toilets to be built till 2019. Free power to 4 crore homes.
  • AMRUT Program to focus on water supply to all households in 500 Cities. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth Rs 19,428 Cr awarded.
  • The low-cost air connectivity scheme, UDAN, will connect 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads. Operations at 16 such airports have already started.
  • National Highways exceeding 9,000-km will be completed in 2018-19.
  • Expand coverage of Jan Dhan Yojna by bringing all 60 crores accounts – to be considered for pension coverage.
  • Gold monetisation scheme being revamped so that people can open gold deposit accounts in a hassle-free manner.
  • Revised fiscal deficit estimate for 2017-18 is 3.5% of GDP, fiscal deficit of 3.3% expected for 2018-19.

 

 

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