Union Budget 2018-2019 Highlights

Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs, Government of India, presented the union budget for 2018-2019 today. Here are some of the most significant points that you should know about. In a shift of tradition, Jaitley delivered the speech in both English and Hindi.

General:

Income tax rates and slabs have not been changed. However, tax-payers get exemption of Rs. 40,000/- under transportation and medical allowances.
President’s salary hiked to 5 lakh a month, Vice President’s to 4 lakh a month, Governor’s to 3.5 lakh a month.
The deduction on medical insurance premium has been steeped to Rs. 50,000/- for senior citizens. Senior citizens with critical illnesses are eligible for a deduction of Rs 1 lakh.
Fiscal deficit for 2017-2018 is 3.5%, expected fiscal deficit for 2018-2019 is 3.3%

Agriculture:

Rs 2000 crore set for investment on agricultural market and infrastructure.
Rs 500 crore allocated for Operation Green- promoting Farmer Producers Organizations, agriculture logistics, processing facilities.
Government to implement minimum support price for all crops- prices hiked to 1.5 times the cost of production.
Credit target for agriculture increased to 11 lakh crore from 8.5 lakh crore.
Rs 10,000 crore each allocated for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Fund and Animal husbandry infrastructure fund respectively.

Education:

Rs. 1 lakh crore allocated to revitalize and upgrading education sector. Government to increase digital influence on education; aims to shift to digital fully by 2020.
1000 B.Tech students to be identified each year by the Government to pursue Ph.Ds in IIT and IISc. research fellows will also teach undergraduate students once a week during this time.

Rural:

Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana likely to be extended until March 2020, with an increase in limit to Rs 15 lakh per senior citizen.
4 crore people to get free power connections under Saubhagya Yojana scheme.
8 crore women to get free LPG connections under Ujjwala Yojana.
Rs 5,750 crore allocated for National livelihood scheme, the government can spend 14.34 lakh crores for creating livelihood in rural areas.

Employee-centric

EPF- Government to contribute 12% of wages of new employees for all sectors, for the next 3 years.
EPF contribution reduced to 8% for women for the next 3 years.

Petrol and diesel: