Budget 2018 Key Highlights

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.