Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has presented the Budget for the year 2018-19 in Parliament. The budget is largely focused on the uplift of the agricultural sector, along with a major push to healthcare and education sectors in the country. The major highlights of the Budget are:
- The Finance Minister said that the Indian economy has grown with an average growth of 7.5% since 2014.
- The Growth rate is expected between 7.2-7.5% in the second half of 2017-18.
- The Minimum Support Price (MSP) of all crops shall increase to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost.
- The government will set up a Rs 2,000 crore Agri- Market Infrastructure Fund.
- Food processing sector is going at an average of 8 percent per annum.
- Allocation to Food Processing Industries increased to 1400 crores in 2018-19 from 715 crores in 2017-18.
- Arun Jaitley proposes a sum of Rs 500 crore for "Operation Green" on the lines of "Operation Flood".
- An allocation of 1290 Crores for Bamboo Mission.
- Air pollution in Delhi-NCR has been a cause of concern, govt has proposed subsidised machinery for in-situ management of crop residue in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT Delhi.
- A fund for the fishery, aquaculture development, and animal husbandry will be set up with a total corpus to be Rs 10,000 crore.
- 11 lakh crore institutional credit for agriculture for 2018-19.
- Ujjwala Yojana: a target of providing free LPG connection to 8 crore poor women.
- Swachh Bharat Mission: Six crore toilets have been built already, and in the next year, two crore additional toilets will be constructed IN 2018-19.
- The government will provide 4 crore electricity connections to the poor under Saubhagya Yojana.
- Kisan credit card to be extended to fisheries, animal husbandry farmers.
- The government will establish a dedicated affordable housing fund.
- Loans to self-help groups will increase to Rs75, 000 crores.
- Govt. allocated Rs 5, 750 crores to National Livelihood Mission and Rs 2,600 crore to the groundwater irrigation scheme.
- Integrated B.Ed program for teachers.
- Eklavya Model School
- Government proposes to launch the Revitalizing of Infrastructure and Systems of Education
- (RISE) by next year with a spending of 1 lakh crore in next four years.
- Specialized Railway University to be set up at Vadodara.
- National Health Protection Scheme- It will cover 10 crores poor and vulnerable, families.
- Under this scheme, Rs 5 lakh will be provided for each family per year.
- Tuberculosis- an allocation of 600 crores to provide nutritional support to TB Patients. It will include Rs 500 per month for patients.
- Rs. 1200 crore for health and wellness centres.
- Loans to women self-help groups of women to be increased to 75,000 crores by March 19.
- GOBAR- DHAN SCHEME- Galvanizing Organic Bio- Agro Resources Dhan Scheme.
- Govt. is launching a new national health protection scheme – Rashtriya Samaj Beema Yojana.
- This will have 50 crore beneficiaries and 10 crore families will get 5 lakh per year for their families to cover secondary and tertiary hospital expenses. This is the world's largest
- government-funded healthcare program.
- The government increased allocation for SC-ST earmarked programmes: Rs 56,000 crore for SCs and Rs 39,000 crore for STs.
- Mudra Yojana- Target for lending is 3 lakh crores for the year 2018-19.
- 5 lakh WiFi hotspots will be set up in rural areas to provide easy internet access.
- Government will take all steps to eliminate use of cryptocurrencies which are funding
- illegitimate transactions.
- Govt announces Amrut program to focus on water supply to all households in 500 cities. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth Rs 19,428 core will be awarded.
- Revised emoluments for President, Vice President and Governors
-- Rs 4 lakh for the Vice President
-- Rs 3.5 lakh for the Governors
- Government plans to eliminate 4267 unmanned Railway crossings in next two years.
- 150 km additional suburban railway network at the cost of Rs. 40,000 cr.
- Regional air connectivity scheme shall connect 56 unserved airports.
- Airport capacity to be hiked to handle 1 billion trips per year.
- Training for 50 lakh youth by 2020.
- Allocation for Digital India Program- Rs 3073 crores for 2018-19.
- 124 Airports in the country are aimed to be expanded more than 5 times.
- Mobile phones set to become costlier as custom duty on them has been increased to 20 percent.
- Disaster Resilient Infrastructure Fund: 60 crores
- Government will take all steps to eliminate use of cryptocurrencies which are funding
- illegitimate transactions.
- The standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for salaried employees in lieu of transport and medical expenses.
- A scheme to assign unique IDs to every individual enterprise to be introduced.
- Merger of three insurance companies- The Oriental Insurance Co. Ltd, National Insurance Co.Ltd, and United India Insurance Co. Ltd into one insurance company.
- Total expenditure for the fiscal year 2018-19 is estimated to be over Rs 24.42 lakh crore.
- Central board of excise and customs [CBEC] to be renamed central board of indirect taxes and customs (CBIC).
- Relief to Senior Citizens: Exemption of Interest Income on deposits increased to Rs 50,000
- Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana extended up to march 2020
- Existed limit on investment under pmvvy enhanced to Rs 15 lakhs
- More Than 1.26 Crore Accounts Opened Across The Country Under Sukanya Samriddhi AccountScheme.
- India will celebrate 150 th Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and allocation for such
- commemorations is 150 crores.
- 3% Education cess has been replaced by 4% Health and Education Cess.
- Fiscal Deficit: Projection for 2018-19 – 3.3%
- It has been 4.1% during 2014-15, 3.9% during 2015-16, 3.5% during 2016-17 and 3.5% during 2017-18.
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