Highlights of Union Budget 2018 – 19 Part-1

admin | February 8, 2018 | Taxation Updates | No Comments

Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley presented the annual budget for the Financial Year 2018-19 in Parliament on 1^st Feb 2018.

Mission of this Financial Budget is to empower the Agricultural Sector, Health, education, MSME and infrastructure Sectors, develop rural area and provide more employment.

India is the fastest growing economy in the world and it needs a series of structural reforms. Country already achieved more than 8% growth rate in manufacturing and service sector. Export is also growing well and in a proper direction.

Budget 2018 – 19:

Agriculture & Rural Economy:-

Government Committed to the welfare of farmers and double their income by 2022, for this Finance Minister has announced new schemes and measures as following –

has decided to keep MSP one and a half times of the production cost of kharif and Rabi crops.
In FY 2018-19 the volume of institutional credit for agriculture sector is raised to Rs. 11 Lakh crore.
The corpus of Rs. 10, 000 crore is setting up for two new funds:

(i) Fisheries and Aqua culture Infrastructure Development Fund (FAIDF) for fisheries sector;

(ii) An Animal Husbandry Infrastructure Development Fund (AHIDF) for financing infrastructure requirement of animal husbandry sector.

A corpus of Rs. 500 crore has announced for a new scheme “Operation Green” on the lines of “Operation Flood”. This fund will address the challenge of price volatility of vegetables and fruits.
The existing 22, 000 rural haats will be upgraded and developed into Gramin Agricultural Market (GrAMs).
An Agri-Market Infrastructure Fund of Rs. 2, 000 crore will be set up for developing and upgrading agricultural marketing infrastructure.
A corpus of Rs. 200 crore was set up for organized cultivation of highly specialized medicinal and aromatic plants.
This year Allocation of fund for Ministry of Food Processing has been doubled. In FY 2017 – 18 it was Rs. 715 crore and in FY 2018 – 19 it is Rs. 1400 crore.
Finance Minister Mr. Arun Jaitley has announced a corpus of Rs. 1290 crore to Restructure the National Bamboo mission of promoting the bamboo sector. Now Bamboo is termed as ‘Green Gold’.
2, 600 crore has been allocated under the Prime Minister Krishi Sinchai Yojana – Har Khet ko Pani. Under this scheme 96 deprived irrigation districts will be taken up.
Finance Minister proposed to set – up a state-of-the-art testing facilities in all the 42 Mega Food Parks.
Loans of Rs. 75, 000 crore was announced to Self Help Groups (SHGs) by March, 2019. In FY 2017-18 it was Rs. 42, 500 crore.
5, 750 crore has been allocated to “National Rural Livelihood Mission” for FY 2018-19.
Under Ujjwala Scheme 8 crore free LPG connections will be distributed to lower and Middle class.

Education, Health & Social Protection:

In FY 2018-19 budget of Rs. 1.38 Lakh crore has estimated on Health, Education and Social Protection. In FY 2017-18 it was Rs. 1.22 Lakh crore.

Education –

Finance Minister has announced of setting up of Ekalavya Model Residential Schools based on Navodaya Vidyalayas. Ekalavya Residential Schools will provide the best quality education to the Tribal Children in their town environment by 2022.
A major initiative named “Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE)”has been taken; it will set up by 2022.
For the set up of RISE a corpus of Rs. 1, 00, 000 crore was allocated.
To improve the quality of Education and teachers an integrated B. Ed programme will be initiated.
Govt will launch the “Prime Minister’s Research Fellows Scheme” this year.
For Prime Minister’s Research Fellows Scheme (PMRF), 1, 000 best B.Tech students will be identified every year from premier institutes and provide them facilities for Ph.D in IITs and IISc.
A fund of Rs. 9, 975 crore was allocated on National Social Assistance Programme for FY 2018-19.

Health Care –

Finance Minister has announced the world’s largest government funded health care programme named “National Health Protection Scheme” to cover more than 10 crore poor and vulnerable families.
Under this National Health Care Programme each family will be providing the coverage upto Rs. 5 Lakh per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.
1, 200 crore has allocated for the National Health Policy, 2017, along with 1.5 Lakh Health and Wellness centres.
The Govt. also allocated the additional Rs. 600 crore to provide nutritional support to all TB patients at Rs. 500 per month for the duration of their treatment.
Finance Minister said, the Govt. will be setting up 24 new Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals by upgrading the existing district hospitals across the country.

Social Protection –

187 projects have been sanctioned under the Namami Gange programme for infrastructure development, river surface cleaning, rural sanitation and others.
16, 713 crore have been allocated for Namami Gange programme.
4465 Ganga Grams (the villages on the bank of river) have been declared open defecation free.

Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSMEs) and Employment –

To develop the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises, the budget has given a big thrust in order to boost the employment and economic growth.

A corpus of Rs. 3, 794 crore has been allocated for providing credit support, capital and interest subsidy for creativity & innovations.
A target is proposed to set lending Rs. 3 Lakh crore under MUDRA for FY 2018-19.

Employment Generation –

Generating employment, creating job opportunities is the core of Government policies.

Finance Minister has targeted to create the 70 Lakh formal jobs this year.
Now Government will contribute 12% of the wages in the EPF of new employees belong to each sectors for next three years.
The budget proposed an outlay of Rs. 7, 148 crore for textile sector.

Infrastructure and Financial Sector Development:

A corpus of Rs. 5.97 Lakh crore has been allocated for infrastructure to connect the nation with road networks, airport, railways, ports and Indian waterways.
This is the all time high allocation to rail and road sectors.
The budget proposed to develop ten prominent tourist sites into Iconic Tourism Destinations.
Under Bharatmala Pariyojana, about 35, 000 kms road construction in Phase – I at an estimated cost of Rs. 5, 35, 000 crore has been approved.