Union Finance Minister Piyush Goyal presented an Interim Budget for 2019 in Parliament on Friday. An Interim Budget usually doesn’t list out new schemes or doesn’t unveil any policy measures. The government will present the vote on account for the next four-to-five months. A full-fledged Budget will be presented after the House reassembles after the general election.
Here are the highlights from Mr. Goyal’s budget speech:
- No income tax for income up to ₹5 lakh
- Individuals with gross income of up to ₹6.5 lakh need not pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities
- Standard tax deduction for salaried persons raised from ₹40,000 to ₹50,000
- TDS threshold on interest on bank and post office deposits raised from ₹10,000 to ₹40,000
- TDS threshold on rental income increased from ₹1.8 lakh to ₹2.4 lakh
- I-T processing of returns to be done in 24 hours
- Within the next 2 years, all verification of tax returns will be done electronically without any interface with the tax payer
- Package of ₹6000 per annum for farmers with less than 2 hectares of land. Scheme will be called Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi.
- Vande Bharat Express, an indigenously developed semi high-speed train, to be launched
- One lakh digital villages planned in the next five years
- Fund allocation to the Northeast region increased to ₹ 58,166 crore, a 21% rise over last year for infrastructure development
- Anti-camcord regulations to be introduced in the Indian Cinematograph Act to prevent piracy and contact theft of Bollywood films.
- Single window clearance for Indian filmmakers.
- 25 per cent of sourcing for government projects will be from the MSME, of which three per cent will be from women entrepreneurs.
- National Artificial Intelligence portal to be developed soon
- ESI cover limit increased to ₹ 21,000. Minimum pension also increased to ₹ 1000.
- Mega pension scheme for workers from the organised sector with an income of less than ₹15,000. They will be able to earn ₹ 3000 after the age of 60. The scheme will be called PM Shramyogi Maan Dhan Yojana.
- 2% interest subversion for farmers pursuing animal husbandry.
- All farmers affected by severe natural calamities to be given interest subversion for the entire period of three per cent of loans.
- The 22nd AIIMS will come up in Haryana