No Change in Tax Slabs in this Budget:
- There will no change for tax slabs for income tax.
- Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 allowed for transport, medical reimbursement for salaried class.
- Section 80D limit proposed to be hiked to Rs 50,000 for senior citizens
Proposals and Announcements:
- All trains will soon have Wifi and CCTV.
- All railways stations with a footfall of more than 25,000 to have escalators
- PAN a must for transactions above Rs 2.5 lakh or more
- Govt health scheme to cover 10 crore poor families is the world’s largest government-funded health protection scheme.
- Electronic IT assessment will be rolled out across the country,
- Kisan credit card facility extended to fisheries and animal husbandry sectors.
- 2 crore more toilets will be built under Swachh Bharat Mission.
- 1 crore houses to be built under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in rural areas.
- Rs 4.6 lakh crore sanctioned under MUDRA Scheme to target 3 lakh crore for lending under PM Mudra Yojana
- 99 cities selected for smart cities project with an outlay of Rs 2.04 lakh crore.
- 5 lakh WiFi hotspots will be set up in rural areas to provide easy internet access
- Cash payments of more than Rs 10,000 by trusts and institutions will not be allowed.
- Companies with turnover of up to Rs 250 crore to be taxed at 25 percent:
- 60 crore bank accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana to be opened.
- Bitcoins, not a legal tender, and Govt. will identify it as an illegitimate transaction.
- Govt will bring a scheme to provide a unique ID to every enterprise similar to Aadhaar.
- Health and education cess has been increased to 4% from 3%
- Rs 600 crore allotted to Tuberculosis patients undergoing treatment.
- Amrut program to focus on the water supply to all households in 500 cities.
- Government to contribute 12 percent of EPF contribution for new employees in all sectors
- proposed to introduce a tax on distributed income by equity-oriented mutual funds at 10 percent.
- proposed to tax long-term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh at 10% without indexation.
- Specialized railway university to be set up at Vadodara.
- Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY), to be increased to Rs 15 lakh from the present Rs 7.5 lakh.
Airport capacity to be hiked to handle 1 billion trips every year.
Some Tax Changes:
- Customs duty on dental hygiene, perfumes, after-shave, room deodorizers, deodorants, preparations for use on hair increased to 20%.
- Import duty on fruit juice increased from 30% to 50%.
- Customs duty on mobile increased to 20% from existing 15%
- Import duty on LCD/LED/OLED panels, parts of TVs hiked to 15%, duty on smart watches, wearable devices, footwear increased to 20%.
Salary Changes:
proposed revising salary of:
- Rs 5 lakh for the President of India
- Rs 4 lakh for the Vice President
- Rs 3.5 lakh for the Governors
In short, the budget 2018-19 is a balanced budget for every sector. There is no change in the Salaried class but 1% extra in form of cess to be an extra burden. Let us know in the comments if you are happy with the budget.
