Everything You need to know on Union Budget 2018 

 Union Budget 2018: Fiscal Expenditure &Taxation Reforms

The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 1st February 2018 presented the Union Budget 2018 in the
parliament. After the independence, this is the 88th Indian budget and the 5th of the Modi Government. Arun Jailtley declared following-

• He started with the promise to reduce poverty and  emphasised the 7.5% average growth achieved during the last three years of NDA government.

Fiscal Expenditure

• The sum expenditure of the Union government is Rs.21.57 lakh crores.
• The supposed fiscal deficit of the Financial Year 2018-19 is 3.3% of the GDP.
  Taxation Reforms
• In the last years, the growth rate of direct taxes has been significant. Till January 2018, growth rate of 18.7% was noticed. More than 85 lakh new taxpayers completed their tax returns. The number of taxpayers raised from
• 6.47 lakh crores to 8.27 lakh crores in the earlier financial year.
• The surplus revenue from personal income tax is Rs.90000 crores.
• Nil changes in personal income tax slabs.
• Maximum, the personal income tax gathering was from the salaried sector. Approximately 1.89 crores returns were completed in 2017 and Rs.1.44 lakh crores were paid I the form of taxes.
  100% tax subtraction to farmer-producer organizations having Rs.100 crores turnover.
• Corporate tax will be decreased to 25% for organizations having turnover of up to Rs.250 crores.
  Long term capital profits tax of 10% will be levied for amount exceeding Rs one lakh.
• Present year, budget suggests a standard deduction of Rs.40000 for transport and medical reimbursements.
• The revenue amount of this reimbursements will be Rs.8000 crore.
• Exemption of interest income for deposits in banks and post offices will be increased from Rs.10000 to Rs.50000 for senior peoples. It applies to all FD plans.

• Manufacturing sector shown growth.
• Overall 6.3% GDP Growth attained in economy overall.
• Food processing industry growth at an average rate of 8% per annum.

Below are the few important updates discussed during Budget-

Expansion of Free cooking gas Scheme

The yojana for allocating free cooking gas has been expanded to 8 crore families who are below poverty line, The number was 5 crore initially. This yojana is named as "Ujjwala Yojana" was started 2 years ago. with an intention of cleaner and safer fuel provision to people who are not
economically sound.

With this scheme, approximately 3.35 crore poor familes have already received their free cooking gas connection. The government provides security deposit for cylinder and regulator to oil companies on behalf of these families.

Budget 2018 on Textile Sector

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced the funds allocation of Rs 7,148 crore for textline sector during the Union Budget 2018-19.

Key Highlights

• Kitex Garments (0.24 percent at Rs 288), Arvind and IndoCount Industries(0.24 percent at Rs 103.55) have gown down in BSE after the announcement.
• All the major textile companies traded flat with a negative bias after the Budget announcement.

Salary Changes  in 2018-19 Budget 

• President's salary has been increassed to 5 lakh per month from 1.5 lakh per month
• Vice president's salary has been increased to 4 lakh per month from 1.25 lakh per month.
• In addition to that, A law has been proposed to automatically increase MLA's salary on regular basis after every five years.
• Salaries to member of parliaments will be re-fixed starting from April 1st, 2018.

Duties

• Customs duty on mobile-phones and parts of TV will be raised to 20% from 15%.
• Customs duty on raw cashew will be decreased from 5% to 2.5%.
• The name of the Central Board of Excise and Customs will be altered to the Central Board of Direct Taxes and Customs.
• Electronic IT evaluation will be rolled out throughout the nation for significant efficiency and transparency.
• No more education cess on imported items. Education cess will be exchanged by social welfare surcharge of 10%.

Key takeaways from Union Budget 2018

Here are the crucial takeaway information from Budget 2018:

Agriculture: 

• The government would be increasing twofold the income of farmers by 2022, on the event of India’s 75th anniversary.
• Government aims to initiate Operation Green with a collection of Rs.500 crores and Rs.10000 crores for Fisheries and Aquaculture and Animal Husbandry Development Fund.

Health:

•  National Health Protection Plan will be initiated to cover 10 crore poor and unprotected families.
• In this, up to Rs.5 lakh will be given to every family annually in secondary and tertiary care centres.
• This plan will have 50 crore receivers.

MSME:

•  Huge formalization of MSME sector is taking place after demonetization and GST. Online loan approval facility will be redeveloped to increase the speed of process completion by banks.

Namami Gange: 

• 187 schemes have been approved under Namami Gange.
• Namami Ganga program outlay has been raised with an all-round development scheme for rural and urban areas along the river Ganga. 
  Infrastructure: 
• The government is aiming to expand connectivity infrastructure in the border areas.
• While the manufacturing on the Rohtang tunnel has been finished, the manufacturing of Zojila pass tunnel is progressing very well. 
• Under Smart Cities mission, 99 cities have been identified with expenditure of Rs 2.09 lakh crores. Government to protect heritage cities through National Heritage Augmentation Yojana.
• Rs 1.48 lakh crore have been assigned for the Indian Railways for the year 2018-19.
• 18000 kilometres of railway line will be doubled to remove capacity limitations.
• The regional connectivity scheme- UDAN would be joining 56 under-served airports and 36 under-served helipads in the nation. 
  Financial Sector: 
• NITI Aayog will form a National Program to direct government's attempts in the field of
  Artificial Intelligence towards national progress.
• The government will examine uusage of blockchain technology proactively to increase digital economy. However, the government will not take into the account the cryptocurrency as legal tender.
• The Union government will recapitalise public sector banks to facilitate them lend an extra Rs.5 lakh crore. 
• Oriental Insurance, Unit Trust of India and National Insurance will be combined and then listed.

Education Sector: 

• The Budget 2018 suggests treating education holistically without fragmentation from pre-nursery to Class 10+2.
• The Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems of Education- RISE will be released by 2019.
• By 2022, every area with more than 50% ST people will have Ekalvya schools at par with Navodaya Vidyalayas.
• Taxation Reforms: Zero changes in personal income tax slabs. Maximum, personal income tax collection takes place from the salaried section.
• Approximately 1.89 crore tax returns were competed in 2017 and Rs 1.44 lakh crores were paid as income-taxes.
• All senior residents will now be able to claim benefit of a deduction of Rs 50000 for any medical disbursements and can claim subtraction of Rs.100000 for serious illnesses.
• The government would be assigning Rs one lakh crore to fortify and upgrade the education
  sector, enhancing learning-based outcomes and research.

• The government also focuses to slowly move from black-boards to digital-boards by 2022. The Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems of Education-RISE will be initiated by 2019.
  Tourism –

• Government projects to form 10 tourists into iconic tourist destinations through infrastructure
  evolution.
• In AMRUT program, the key focus to be on providing water supply facilities to cities.
• Road infrastructure- Government to finish addition of national highways to approximate 9000 kilometres.
• The government had also passed the Bharatmala project, which focuses to provide seamless interconnection in backward and border sectors.
  Railways
• Rs 1. 48 lakh crores have been assigned for the Indian Railways for the year 2018-19.
• 18000 kilometres of railway lines will be doubled to eliminate capacity constraints.
• There would also be an expansion in the use of technology including fog, train protection and warning management.
• The Railways is designing to re-develop 600 bigger railway stations.
• All stations over 25000 footfalls will have escalators. All railway stations will also be loaded with high-speed WIFI.
• The Mumbai transport structure will be increased and elevated at a cost of Rs 11000 crores.
• A sub-urban network of 160 kilometres is being designed for Bengaluru metropolitans.
• The government had earlier laid the foundation of the fast-moving bullet train between Mumbai-Ahmedabad.
• An institute would be formed in Vadodara in Gujarat to train the staff for the fast-moving railway project.
  Airways
• The regional connectivity scheme- UDAAN would be joining 56 underworked airports and 36 underworked helipads in the nation.
• AAI has 124 airports currently and it would be enlarging its airport area more than five times to almost one billion trips a year.