Following are the highlights of Union Budget – 2017. This is Arun Jaitley’s fourth annual budget.
1) Income Tax rate has been cut to 5 pc for individuals having income between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.
2) 10 pc surcharge on individual income above Rs 50 lakh and upto Rs 1 cr to make up for Rs 15,000 crore loss of due to cut in personal I-T rate
3) 15 pc surcharge on income above Rs 1 cr to continue.
4) Revenue deficit reduced to 2.1 percent from 2.3 percent for 2016-17.
5) Agriculture sector is expected to grow at 4.1 percent this fiscal.
6) Rs. 9000 crore higher allocation for payment of sugarcane arrears.
7) Target of agriculture credit fixed at Rs. 10 lakh crore in 2017-18.
8) National Testing Agency to conduct all examinations in higher education, freeing CBSE and other agencies.
9) 1 crore households to be brought out of poverty under Antyodya Scheme.
10) Two new AIIMS will be set up in Jharkhand and Gujarat.
11) National Housing Bank will refinance individual loans worth Rs. 20000 crore in 2017-18.
12) Allocation for SCs increased from Rs. 38833 crore to Rs. 52393 (rise of 35 percfent)
13) Unmanned railway level crossings to be removed by the year 2020.
14) Rs. 1 lakh crore corpus will be set up for railway safety over coming five years.
15) A scheme will be introduced for senior citizens with 8 percent ensures returns
16) The shares of railway CPSCs like IRCTC and IRFC to be listed on various stock exchanges.
17) Political parties can receive donations in cheque, electronic mode, electoral bonds to be issued by Reserve Bank of India.
18) Duty exempted on various POS machines and IRIS readers to encourage digital payments.
19) Head post offices to issue passports
20) No transaction above Rs. 3 lakh in cash will be allowed as suggested by SIT.