Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has presented the Union Budget 2017 in Parliament. This budget is also special as it is the first time that the Union and railway budgets have been merged. The merger brought an end to the 92-year-old tradition of having a separate railway budget. Here are key announcements:
- Income between Rs. 2.5 lakh – Rs. 5 lakh to be taxed at 5 per cent
- Surcharge of 10% to be levied on persons earning between Rs. 50 lakh to Rs. 1 crore
- For FY17-18, target for agricultural fixed at a record Rs 10 lakh crore
- Aadhaar-based smart cards for senior citizens to check health
- Rs 10 lakh crore as credit to farmers with 60 days interest waiver
- Highest ever allocation for MGNREGA of Rs 48,000 crore
- Special airports in tier 2 cities to be urbanized in PPP mode
- Over 1.5 lakh gram Panchayats to get high-speed broadband Internet
- One crore houses for poor by 2019
- Safe drinking water to cover 28,000 arsenic in the next 4 years
- Two new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to be set up in Jharkhand and Gujarat
- Basic custom duty for LNG reduced from 2.5% from 5
- Limit of cash donations by charitable trust brought down from Rs.10,000 to Rs 2,000
- Small companies with turnover of above Rs 50 crore will have to pay 25% tax as against 30% earlier
- Government prohibits cash transaction above Rs. 3 lakh
- One page tax filing form for taxable income under Rs.5 lakh
