Budget 2018 highlights

Tax proposals for Salaried Class:

No change in income slabs for salaried class.

Health and education cess has been increased to 4 per cent

Standard deduction of Rs. 40,000 for salaried employees in lieu of transport and medical expenses

Education cess: 3% to 4%

Surcharge of 10 % on income above Rs 50 lakh but less than Rs 1 cr  and 15 % on income above Rs 1 crore

Govt will contribute 12% of the wages of new employees in EPF in all sectors for next 3 years
Women contribution to EPF reduced to 8% for first 3 years

Relief to Senior Citizen:

Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 reintroduced for pension income

Exemption on interest of 50000/-for deposit and recurring deposit of Senior Citizen

Health insurance Rs.50000/-, critical illness 1 lakh

Vaya  vandana  scheme of LIC for Senior Citizen interest @ 8%  increased  from 7.50 lakh to 15 lakhs up to 2020.

Tax on equities:

Long term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh at 10 per cent without indexation

Tax on distributed income by equity oriented mutual funds at 10 per cent.

Long term capital gain tax on equities introduced for income of above 1 lakh 15%

Short term equity income attracts 15%

10% tax distributed income of MF

Banking:
Recapitalisation of public sector banks of Rs 5 lakh crore

Kisan credit card to fisheries and for animal husbandry

Jan Dhan Yojana : All 16 crore accounts will be included under micro insurance and pension schemes

Railways:

Bengaluru metro gets 17000 crore and Mumbai Railway network 11000 crore

All railways stations with footfall more than 25,000 to have escalators,

The government will undertake redevelopment of 600 major railway stations across the country.

4,000 km of new railway track will be laid down by 2019

Allocation to Agriculture:
Agricultural market and infra fund of Rs 2000 crore for strengthening the market connectivity.
A sum of Rs 500 cr will be allocated for Operation Green to be launched to promote agricultural products.
Rs 10,000 crore set aside for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Fund
Rs. 1200 Crore for restructured bamboo mission “Bamboo is green gold,”

Allocation to Medical:
Free medical insurance cover of Rs.5 lakh to 10 crore poor families,
one medical college for every 3 parliamentary constiuencies,
Rs 600 crore allocated for tuberculosis patients, at the rate Rs 500 per month during the course of their treatment.

Other tax proposals:

Companies with turnover of up to Rs 250 crore to be taxed at 25 per cent.Rs 7,148 cr allocated for textile sector

Custom Duty

Import of solar tempered glass for manufacture of solar cells exempted from customs duty.
Customs duty on crude edible vegetable oils like groundnut oil, safflower seed oil hiked from 12.5% to 30%; on refined edible vegetable oil from 20% to 35%
Customs duty on imitation jewellery hiked from 15% to 20%;

All watches  from 10% to 20%.
Import duty on LCD/LED/OLED panels, parts of TVs hiked to 15%;

Duty on smart watches, wearable devices, footwear doubled to 20%.

New proposals:

UDAN scheme will connect 56 unserved airports.

Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth Rs 19,428 core will be awarded for Water supply to all households in 500 cities.

5 lakh WiFi hotspots will be set up in rural areas to provide easy internet access

Disinvestments

Disinvestment target for 2017-18 has been exceeded and will reach Rs 1 lakh crore. Target for 2018-19 is Rs 80,000 crore.

National Insurance Co, Oriental Insurance Co and United Assurance Co to be merged into one entity and subsequently listed.