The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman made her maiden Budget Speech today and presented the Union Budget 2019-20 before the Parliament. Here are the Highlights of Union Budget 2019-20.
The key highlights of Union Budget 2019
- Ten Points of Vision
- Direct Tax
- Indirect Tax
- Growth and Inflation
- Reforms
- Financial Sectors and Markets
- Infrastructure and Industry
- Farm Sector
- Social Sector and Education
- Miscellaneous
1) Ten POINTS OF VISION
- Building social infrastructure among 10 points of vision
- Building a pollution-free environment among 10 points of vision
- Digital India in every sector among 10 points of vision
- Make in India with stress on MSME in 10 points of vision
- Water management, clean rivers among 10 points of vision
- Export of food grain in 10 points of vision
- Ayushman Bharat, clean India among 10 points of vision
- Space programs, the safety of citizen in 10 points of vision
2) DIRECT TAX
- Increasing surcharge on income over 20 mln rupees/year
- Faceless tax scrutiny case selection to be on a random basis
- Propose 2% TDS on 10 mln rupee/yr cash withdrawal from banks
- Propose to take a slew of measures to boost digital payments
- Launching automated, faceless assessment of tax
- To make pre-filled tax return forms available
- To make Aadhaar, PAN interchangeable to file tax returns
- Tax proposals aim to stimulate growth, housing
- Direct tax mop up 11.37 trillion rupees FY19 vs 6.38 trillion FY14
- Seeing double-digit growth in direct tax revenue annually
- Corporate tax now 25% for cos with 4 bln rupees/yr revenue
- Corporate tax cut to cover 99.3% of all cost
3) INDIRECT TAX
- To raise the road, infra cess on petrol, diesel by 1 rupee/ltr
- To up special additional excise on diesel by 1 rupee/ltr
- To up special additional excise on petrol by 1 rupee/ltr
- Proposing certain amendments to the Customs Act
- Raising customs duty on precious metals to 12.5%
- Raising customs duty on gold
- Customs duty being exempted on some parts of e-vehicles
- 5% customs duty being imposed on imported books
- To implement a fully-automated GST refund module
- GST led to lower rates on almost all commodities
- Tax deduction of 150,000 rupees on e-vehicle loan interest
- Extra 150,000-rupee tax deduction on some small home loans
- RBI, banks to absorb merchant discount rate at small shops
- No merchant discount rate on e-transaction at small shops
4) GROWTH and INFLATION
- Well within the capacity to reach $5-trillion economy in a few years
- India to become a $3-trillion economy in FY20
- India now 6th largest economy vs 11th five years ago
5) REFORMS
- Need to continue undertaking structural reforms
- Need to continue structural reforms to reach a $5-trillion aim
- Need to invest in job creation in MSMEs
- Need to invest heavily in digital India, job creation
- $5-trillion economy target is imminently achievable
- Gone are the days of policy paralysis
- Wish to propose many initiatives to kick-start growth
- Reforms needed in power tariffs
- To soon announce policy package for power tariffs
- Model tenancy law to soon be finalized
- Propose several reform measures for rental housing
- PPP to fast develop a track, rolling stock, freight svcs
- To have the blueprint for water grids, gas grids, airways
- Examining the performance of UDAY scheme
- One nation, one grid to ensure power connectivity
- 2 more terminals at Sahibganj, Haldia to be functional soon
- Movement of cargo in river Ganga to rise 4 times in 4 yrs
6) FINANCIAL SECTOR, MARKETS
- STT to be limited to the gap between settlement, strike price
- Propose some leeway in Securities Transactions Tax
- Propose to implement steps to make tax compliance easier
- Bad loan tax norms for most NBFCs at par with banks
- Need for greater parity in the tax treatment of NBFCs vs banks
- CBDT to make provisions for pending assessment of startups
- Start-ups not to face scrutiny in terms of share premium
- Taking steps to resolve an angel tax issue for startups
- To start a scheme for foreign cos in the advanced technology sector
- To start a scheme to invite foreign cos in sunrise sectors
- To give PSU banks 700 bln rupees capital
- Banks’ NPAs reduced by more than 1 trillion rupees last year
- Domestic credit growth rose to 13.8%
- To let all NBFC to participate in trade receivable platform
- Propose to return regulation over housing fin cos to RBI
- Propose more power to RBI over NBFCs in Finance Bill
- One-time, six-month guarantee to PSU banks to buy some NBFC loans
- Fundamentally sound NBFCs should get funding from banks, MFs
- To undertake steps to improve governance in PSU banks
- The provision coverage ratio of banks highest in 7 years
- Six PSU banks enabled to come out of prompt corrective action
- To start raising part of borrowing from external market in FX
- To boost retail participation in CPSE ETFs
- India’s sovereign external debt to GDP ratio of less than 5%
- To offer ETF participation via ELSS-like system
- Setting a divestment target of 1.05 trillion rupees for FY20
- Govt to reinitiate process of Air India divestment
- Onshore insurers’ net owned funds need cut to 10 bln rupees
- * Strategic divestment of PSUs to remain a priority
- Mulling below 51% stake in PSUs on a case-to-case basis
- To raise the cap on foreign shareholding in some PSUs
- Steps to separate NPS Trust from PFRDA
- Financial gains from cleaning banking sector now visible
- FDI inflows remain robust despite global headwinds
- Important to increase retail invest in T-bills
- Propose to create a platform for listing social enterprises
- To work with regulators for AA bonds as collateral for repo
- Asked SEBI to mull hiking minimum public shareholding to 35%
- Propose to rationalize existing KYC norms for FPIs
- India needs 20-trillion-rupee estimated investment every year
- To put in place action plan to deepen long-term bond mkt
- Action plan to deepen the market for long-term bonds
- Invest driven growth requires access to low-cost capital
- To create a payment platform for MSMEs
- Large infrastructure can be built on land owned by CPSEs
- To allow FPIs to subscribe to listed debt papers of REITs
- Propose to merge NRI, FPI investment scheme routes
- To mull hiking FDI limit in media, insurance, animation cos
- Contemplating annual global investors meet in India
- Propose 100% FDI in insurance intermediaries
- To examine suggestions to further open up FDI in aviation
- FDI flows rose 6% to $64.37 bln in FY19
- Propose to make India a more attractive FDI destination
- To take steps for RBI, SEBI depositories’ interoperability
- To allow FPIs to subscribe to listed debt papers of REITs
- Propose to merge NRI, FPI investment scheme routes
- To mull hiking FDI limit in media, insurance, animation cos
- Contemplating annual global investors meet in India
- Propose 100% FDI in insurance intermediaries
- To examine suggestions to further open up FDI in aviation
- FDI flows rose 6% to $64.37 bln in FY19
- Propose to make India a more attractive FDI destination
- To take steps for RBI, SEBI depositories’ inter-operability
- To allow FPI to invest in listed debt securities of InvITs
- Will take steps to meet 25% public holding in listed PSUs
- Need to encourage the continued growth of startups
7) INFRASTRUCTURE and INDUSTRY
- To invest 100 trillon rupees in infrastructure over the next 5 years
- To set up a panel on long-term funding for infrastructure
- Need to invest heavily in infrastructure
- Rail infra may need an investment of 50 trillon rupees 2018-2030
- The 2nd stage of Bharatmala to help develop state roads
- To incentivize advanced vehicle battery manufacturing
- Need to develop inland waterways for cargo movement
- To comprehensively restructure national highway programme
- 210 km of new metro lines operationalized in 2019
- Launching national common mobility card
- To leverage engineering skill for project maintenance work
- Public infra, affordable housing to be taken up in FY20
- To aid cluster-based development of traditional industries
- To use more PPP mode for the metro rail network
- Railways to be encouraged to use SPVs for suburban projects
- To use USOF, PPP mode for speeding up BharatNet
- To deal with tax issues of start-ups later in the speech
- To start a TV program exclusively for startups
8) FARM SECTOR
- Every rural family to have gas, power connectivity by 2022
- All rural families to have electricity connection by 2022
- Govt keeps Antyodaya at the core of all its policies
- Villages, poor, farmers at the centre of every govt plan
- Gaon, Garib, Kisan at the center of every govt plan
- To invest wisely in agriculture infrastructure
- Bamboo, khadi, honey to be a focus for cluster development
- To invest 802.5 bln rupees to upgrade rural roads in 5 years
- To upgrade 125,000 km of rural roads in 5 years
- 30,000 km roads under PM Sadak Yojana built with green technology
- All-weather roads provided to 97% of habitation
- To have a robust framework for fisheries mgmt network
- 19.5 mln homes to be given till 2022 in PM rural house plan
- 15 mln homes completed under PM rural house plan
- APMCs shouldn’t hamper farmers from getting a fair price
- Zero-budget farming to be promoted
- Hope to form 10,000 farmer producer organisations
- Aiming oilseed self-sufficiency, to help cut import bill
- Ease of doing business, living should apply to farmers too
- To create infrastructure for cattle feed manufacturing
- Will support private companies to add value for farm producers
- Zero-budget farming can help double farmers’ income
9) SOCIAL SECTOR and EDUCATION
- See rapid urbanization as an opportunity, not challenge
- Constructed 96 mln toilets since Oct 2, 2014
- To expand Swachh Bharat plan to undertake solid waste mgmt
- India to be open-defecation-free by Oct 2
- Over 95% of cities have become open-defecation free
- Identified 1,592 blocks for Jal Shakti Abhiyan
- To use CAMPA funds for Jal Shakti plan
- Aim water connection to every household by 2024
- To set up national research foundation to assimilate all grants
- To bring a new national education policy
- Will bring in new national educational policy
- 3 mln workers joined the govt pension plan so far
- Banks to provide assistance under the Stand-Up India scheme
- Stand-Up India scheme to continue till 2025
- Expect fewer labor disputes as laws get streamlined
- Propose to develop 17 iconic tourism sites
- Propose digital repository for tribal heritage
- Propose to revamp India Development Assistance Scheme
- Opened 5 new embassies in Africa FY19, to open 4 more
- Propose to launch a mission to integrate traditional artisans
10) MISCELLANEOUS
- Election 2019 mandate was full of hope for new India
- Voters stamped their approval on a performing government
- People of India voted for national security, economic growth
- Have set the ball rolling for new India
- Govt provided fiscal discipline during 2014-2019
- Average food security amount almost doubled during 2014-19
- Our last-mile delivery stood out, reached everywhere
- Will further simplify the procedure, reduce red tape
- Mega programs initiated in the 1st term will continue
- We don’t look down upon legitimate profit-earning
- To take a step for the virtuous cycle of domestic, foreign investment
- * Time right for India to enter aircraft financing, leasing
- Launched co to tap ISRO’s capabilities commercially
What do you think of Highlights of Union Budget 2019-20?
Source: PRESS INFORMATION BUREAU GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
