01/02/2019
Tax announcements:
* No tax till Rs 5 lakh income for individuals tax payers
* Standard deduction increased to Rs 50,000 from Rs 40,000 for salaried class
* Individuals with gross income up to 6.5 lakh rupees will not need to pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities
* TDS threshold for home rent increased from Rs 1.8 lakh to 2.4 lakh
* Interest income up to Rs 40,000 in post offices and banks made tax free
* Capital gains tax exemptions under Section 54 to be available for increased to Rs 2 crore. Capital gains exemption to be available on 2 house properties
* Income tax relief on notional rent from unsold houses extended to 2 years from 1 year
* Income Tax returns to be processed within 24 hours and returns will be paid immediately
* Within nearly two years, almost all assessment and verification of IT returns will be done electronically by an anonymised tax system without any intervention by officials
* Group of Ministers to suggest ways to reduce GST for house buyers
* Direct tax collections increased from Rs 6.38 lakh crore in 2013-14 to almost Rs 12 lakh crore; The tax base is up from Rs 3.79 crore to 6.85 crore
* Gratuity limit increased for workers
Other key announcements:
* Rs 6,000 per year pension for farmers
* Rs 3,000 per year pension for unorganised sector workers
* Interest subvention for farm loan takers
* Businesses with less than Rs 5 crore annual turnover, comprising over 90% of GST payers, will be allowed to return quarterly returns
* A single window clearance for filmmakers
* Indian Customs to fully digitised exim transactions and leveraging RFID for logistic. Govt abolishes duties on 36 capital goods
* Nine priority areas: To build next-gen infrastructure - physical as well as social; (1) To build a Digital India that reaches every citizen; (2) Clean and Green India; (3) Expanding rural industrialization using modern industrial technologies; (4) Clean Rivers - with safe drinking water to all Indians; (5) Oceans and coastlines; (7) India becoming launchpad of the world; (8) Self-sufficiency in food and improving agricultural productivity with emphasis on organic food; (9) Healthy India; (10) Minimum Government MaximumGovernance, with proactive, responsible and friendly bureaucracy.
Social schemes:
* For unorganised workers: New Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan Yojana for unorganised sector workers with income up to Rs 15,000 per month. Beneficiaries will get Rs 3,000 per month pension with a contribution of Rs 100 per month after the retirement. Govt allocates Rs 500 crore for the scheme
* Assured income for farmers: Govt approves assured income support scheme for small and marginal farmers under which every farmers having up to 2 hectare of lands will get Rs 6,000 per year in three equal installment. This will benefit 12 crore small and marginal farmers and the expenditure of nearly Rs 75,000 crore for the scheme will be borne by the Centre. The scheme will be effective from December 1, 2018.
* Interest subvention for farm loans: Instead of rescheduling of crop loans, the farmers severely affected by natural calamities will get 2 percent interest subvention and additional 3 per cent interest subvention upon timely repayment
* 2% interest subvention to farmers who pursue animal husbandry, fisheries jobs through Kisaan credit cards
* Kamdhenu scheme for animal husbandary
* Govt to build 1 lakh digital villages
* For the welfare of farmers and for doubling their income, historic decision was taken to increase MSP by 1.5 times the production cost for all 22 crops
* To ensure cleaner fuel and health assurance, we embarked upon Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, a programme to give 8 crore free LPG connections to rural households, 6 crore connections have been given already
* Committee under NITI Aayog to be set up to for denotifed nomadic & semi nomadic communities
* A single window clearance for filmmakers to be made available to filmmakers, anti-camcording provision to also to be introduced to Cinematography Act to fight piracy
State of Economy:
*India is poised to become a $5 trillion economy in next 5 years, $10-trillion economy in the next eight years
* On black money: Committed to eliminating the scourge of black money; anti-black money measures taken have brought an undisclosed income of about 1.30 lakh crore rupees to the fore; 3.38 lakh shell companies were deregistered
* GST: collections in January 2019 has crossed Rs 1 lakh crore
* GST has been continuously reduced, resulting in relief of 80,000 crore rupees to consumers; most items of daily use for poor and middle class are now in the 0%-5% tax bracket
*Fiscal deficit seen at 3.4 percent in FY 19 and Current account deficit at 2.5% of the GDP
* We have recovered Rs 3 lakh crore through Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code. Govt expects banks on the central bank's Prompt Corrective Action list to be removed soon.
* Indian GDP: Growth in the last 5 years has been higher than that by any other govt. Spent Rs 2.6 lakh crore in recap of PSU Banks
* Average inflation in UPA government was 10% and we have brought that down that to 4 percent. Inflation in December 2018 was 2.1%. If we had not controlled inflation our families would have been spending 35-40 per cent more on daily use items
* We conducted transparent auctioning of natural resources like coal and oil
* Domestic air traffic doubled in the last 5 years
* Over 90 percent of the country has been covered under sanitation coverage. People have made this a social revolution and i thank the 130 people of the country. More than 5.45 lakh villages have been declared Open Defecation Free
* In the past, false promises were made but we have taken targeted expenditure on all dimensions
* Everybody will get electricity connection in the near future. We have provided 143 crore electricity bulb to the poor
* Ayushman Bharat the world's largest healthcare programme was launched to provide medical care to almost 50 crore people, resulting in 3,000 crore savings by poor families
* Lower costs of Stents & Knee implants have benefitted people. Government has announced 14 new AIIMS since 2014
* Loans worth Rs 7.23 lakh crore have been given under Mudra Yojana
* Today there is not a single unmanned railway crossing on the broad gauge in India. Railway's operating ratio seen 96.2% in FY19 Vs 95% FY20. Railway capex for FY20 set at record Rs 1.6 Lakh Cr
*Monthly mobile data consumption has increased 50x in last 5 years; cost of data & voice calls in India is possible the lowest in the world
