New DelhiBudget 2018 the BJP-led NDA governments last before general elections kept its eyes firmly on agriculture and rural sectors, major healthcare for the poor and some relief in income tax for the salaried.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi termed the Union Budget development-friendly and said it would strengthen the vision of a new India.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented his fifth straight budget in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. He said the focus of the government in the coming year would be agriculture and rural Indiaand announced that all kharif crop would be paid a minimum support price (MSP) that is 50 per cent more than the cost of production.
He said the credit to agriculture would be raised to Rs 11 lakh crore in the coming fiscal from Rs 10 lakh crore.
Kisan credit card would be extended to fisheries and animal husbandry farmers while Rs 2,000 crore would be provided for development of the agri market.
Congratulating Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and his team, Modi said farmers, Dalits and tribal communities would gain from the budget. The budget, he emphasised, would create new opportunities for rural India.
To provide healthcare to the poor, Jaitley announced a ‘National Health Protection scheme’ to provide health cover of up to Rs 5 lakh to each of the 10 crore poor family per year.
He raised the health and education cess, levied on all taxable income, to 4 per cent from current 3 per cent, and introduced a social welfare surcharge of 10 per cent to fund social welfare schemes.
But to fund these, he let go on the fiscal consolidation roadmap. As a result, fiscal deficit for current fiscal will widen to 3.5 per cent of the GDP as against 3.2 per cent previously targeted, and to 3.3 per cent in FY 2019 as opposed to 3 per cent previously targeted. Fiscal deficit in 2016-17 was 3.5 per cent of the GDP.
We have worked sincerely without thinking about the political cost, he said.
Jaitley also announced 100 per cent tax deduction for farm producer firms with turnover of Rs 100 crore.
He lowered the corporate tax for small, micro and medium enterprises with turnover of up to Rs 250 crore to 25 per cent from current 30 per cent, while reintroducing the tax on long term capital gains of over Rs 1 lakh made from the sale of shares.
While keeping the income tax rates and slabs unchanged, Jaitley introduced a Rs 40,000 standard deduction for salaried employees and pensioners against transport and medical expenses.
For senior citizens, exemption of interest income on bank deposits was raised to Rs 50,000 from the current Rs 10,000, he said, adding tax would not be deducted at source on fixed deposits.
Also, exemption on medical expenses on critical illnesses has been raised to Rs 1 lakh, he said, in his 110-minute speech.
Jaitley said a 10 per cent tax on long-term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh made from the sale of shares has been introduced but those made till Janaury 31 would be grandfathered.
A 10 per cent tax on distributed income by equity-oriented mutual funds has also been proposed in the Budget.
With excise duty and service tax being subsumed in the Goods and Services Tax (GST), Jaitley made changes only in customs duty — raising them in case of mobile phones and lowering for raw cashew.
The target for providing free LPG connection to poor has been raised to 8 crore from 5 crore and 4 crore poor households would be provided free electricity connections.
The President’s salary has been raised to Rs 5 lakh per month and that of the Vice President to Rs 4 lakh. Governors will get Rs 3.5 lakh a month.
For members of Parliament, he announced a new law that would allow for automatic revision in their emoluments every five years based on inflation.
He said the focus would be on the agri sector, infrastructure and education as he promised to provide education holistically without segmentation from pre-nursery to Class 12. He said education would move from the black board to digital board.
The emphasis would be on generating higher income for farmers. Our government wants to help farmers produce more and realise higher prices, Jaitley said.
Stating that crop production is at a record high, Jaitley said the government was committed to giving 50 per cent more than cost of crop production to farmers.
He said when the NDA government took over, India was considered one of the fragile five economies of the world and the Modi-led Government have reversed it.
“India is today fastest growing economy… India is today a USD 2.5 trillion economy and will become fifth largest in the world from the present seventh,” he said, projecting exports growth at 15 per cent.
In the second half (October-March) the growth was expected to be 7.2-7.5 per cent and India was firmly on the path to achieve 8 per cent growth, he said.
Stating that air pollution in Delhi NCR is a cause for concern, he said the Centre would implement special scheme to support the governments of Haryana, Punjab, UP and Delhi NCT to address it and subsidise machinery for the management of crop residue.
The Budget announced allocation of Rs 600 crore towards nutritional support of tuberculosis patients and setting up of 24 new medical colleges and hospitals by upgrading district level ones.
He said the government is slowly but steadily progressing towards universal health coverage and total budget for health, education and social security was increased to Rs 1.38 lakh crore for 2018-19 from Rs 1.22 lakh crore in the current fiscal.
Stating that Rs 4.6 lakh crore has been sanctioned under the MUDRA Scheme, he said government would soon announce measures to address the issue of non-performing assets in the MSME sector.
Mass formalisation of MSME sector is happening after demonetisation and GST and the target for loan disbursement under Mudra scheme has been set at Rs 3 lakh crore for next fiscal, Jaitley said.
Employees PF Act would be amended to reduce contribution of women to 8 per cent from 12 per cent for first three years, with no change in employer’s contribution, Jaitley said.
The government will contribute 12 per cent of wages of new employees in EPF for all sectors for the next 3 years, he said.
He said Rs 50 lakh crore is needed for infrastructure and the government would allocate Rs 7,140 crore for textiles sector in next year.
National Highways exceeding 9,000-km would be completed in 2018-19 and allocation of over Rs 1.48 lakh crore has been planned for railways.
Regional air connectivity scheme shall connect 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads and the government would expand capacity of airports by five times to cater to one billion trips a year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the Budget devotes attention to all sectors, ranging from agriculture to infrastructure.
The budget is farmer friendly, common citizen friendly, business-environment friendly and will add to ease of living and ease of doing business, Modi added.
Chidambaram: Jaitley failed, consequence will follow
Opposition leaders tore into Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s last full Budget presented on Thursday, with most voicing concerns over the mounting fiscal deficit.
Former Finance Minister and veteran Congress leader P Chidambaram said: “The Finance Minister has failed fiscal consolidation test, this failure will have serious consequences.”
Congress president Rahul Gandhi tweeted his contempt for the newly-presented Union budget.
“4 years gone; still promising FARMERS a fair price. 4 years gone; FANCY SCHEMES, with NO matching budgets. 4 years gone; no JOBS for our YOUTH. Thankfully, only 1 more year to go,” he tweeted.
Congress leader and former Union Minister Manish Tiwari dismissed the Budget quite openly.
“After servicing the capitalists, oligarchs and Khas Aadmi for four years suddenly government feels that it can fool the farmer, the labourer, the small artisan, the salaried professional that it cares about them too in an election year. Hell hath no fury like a nation scorned,” he said.
Piyush Goyal, BJP leader and Railway Minister, retaliated to this saying, “Congress is forgetting that in the year before 2009 election the Congress party had allowed fiscal deficit situation to deteriorate from 2.9% to over 5% within the same year. If that is fiscal prudence then we will have to revisit the definition of fiscal prudence in India.”
Former Prime Minister of India HD Dewe Gowda’s reaction was welcoming but apprehensive. Praising the finance minister for his attempts to improve economic conditions, the Janata Dal leader said, “…the problems of farmers and rural people are enormous. Measures may not be sufficient.”
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which currently holds fort in Delhi, was also critical of the budget.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP top boss Arvind Kejriwal said, “I had expected some financial assistance to important infrastructure projects for national capital. Am disappointed that Centre continues its step-motherly treatment to Delhi.”
Deputy Chief Minister and AAP leader Manish Sisodia played it along the same lines as his superior.
“Delhi police comes under the Centre. Yet no plans or schemes announced to tackle crime and issues of women safety that have made Delhi the crime capital of India. Highly disappointing,” he said.
West Bengal Chief Minister and All India Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee commented, “It’s a negative, super flop and big bluff budget.”
Communist Party of India (Marxist) expressed their criticism of the budget in multiple tweets.
“Despite cutting capital expenditures & spending on social schemes in 2017-18 below budgeted figures, Govt unable to meet fiscal deficit target of 3.2% of GDP. #Budget2018 What the budget & Finance Minster’s speech show, much like the rhetoric around #Demonetization, is the inclination of the current Govt to make a direct assault on common people & then claim it to be for their good. A Govt addicted to #PostTruth. #BudgetLies,” the party wrote.
Prez salary hiked to Rs 5 lakh, VP to Rs 4 lakh, governors to get Rs 3.5 lakh
Along with the common man, the Union Budget 2018 had brought cheers to the top Government officials.
In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday announced an upward revision of salaries of the President, Vice-President and Governors.
A proposal to revise salary of the President to Rs 5 lakh per month, Vice-President to Rs 4 lakh per month and the Governors of states to Rs 3.5 lakh was tabled by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament.
The President, who holds the highest office in the country and serves as the supreme commander of the defence forces, currently gets Rs 1.5 lakh as salary.
The scale of increase in the salary of the President is by a whopping 200 per cent.
The existing salary of the Vice-President is Rs 1.25 lakh a month, while that of the Governor of a state is Rs 1.10 lakh.
The announcement was welcomed by the Members of Parliament (MPs).
Jaitley also proposed a change in the procedures of revision of Member of Parliament’s salaries. He said the salaries to the MPs will be automatically revised every five years indexed to inflation, so that they themselves should not fix their own salaries.
“Law also provides for an automatic revision of emoluments with respect to inflation. Now salary will be inflation-based and will not be fixed by MPs,” Jaitley said.
The proposal needs Parliament’s approval which is expected in the current Budget session. Once cleared, the salary will be made applicable from February, 2016.
The proposal was to incrase the salary of the President to Rs 5 lakh a month was made in 2016.
After the implementation of 7th pay commission, it was reported that the President and the Vice-President get less salaries as compared to the top bureaucrats and service chiefs.
Follow this link to join our WhatsApp group: Join Now
Be Part of Quality Journalism |
Quality journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce and despite all the hardships we still do it. Our reporters and editors are working overtime in Kashmir and beyond to cover what you care about, break big stories, and expose injustices that can change lives. Today more people are reading Kashmir Observer than ever, but only a handful are paying while advertising revenues are falling fast. |
ACT NOW |
MONTHLY | Rs 100 | |
YEARLY | Rs 1000 | |
LIFETIME | Rs 10000 | |