Digital India takes the center stage in Union Budget 2017-18

The total outlay for infrastructure announced by Jaitley in last year’s budget was Rs 2.21 lakh crore. He also said that the government will encourage Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) to provide loans at reasonable rate.

With Union Budget 2017-18, the government has permanently waived off the IRCTC service charge levied on booking railway tickets online from the website.

On the merger of Rail Budget with General Budget, he said, “Railways functional autonomy will continue”. Bringing agricultural income into the tax net – with a threshold set high enough to protect small and even medium farmers – would be a reform that would boost direct tax revenues but the BJP (like the Congress before it, not to speak of various regional parties) is wary of alienating wealthy rural interests by considering such a move. For Defence expenditure excluding pensions, he provided a sum of Rs 2,74,114 crores including Rs. 86,488 crores for Defence capital.

Agriculture: Union Budget 2017 has supported income security to farmers.

Under the “Indradhanush’ plan, the NDA government plans to infuse Rs 70000 in PSU banks over next five years”. “But it remains to be seen how the government will fund these projects”. All eyes were set on the FM today as it was the first budget after the Union government scrapped Rs 500 and Rs 1000 in November past year.

For the urban common man, there is not anything significant in the Budget beyond the cut in income tax rate for the lowest slaband sops for housing and real estate.

The Economic Survey presented ahead of the budget said demonetisation has hit India’s growth by 0.25-0.5% of GDP, but will yield a fiscal “windfall”.

Transportation: Government has allocated Rs 2,41,387 crore for upgradation of airports in country.

Arun Jaitley: We have made a decision to abolish Foreign Investment Promotion Board from next year. Foremost among them was a proposed merging of several state-owned oil and gas companies to create an integrated national outfit that would be a global behemoth.

Among the 3.7 crore individuals who filed the tax returns in 2015-16, 99 lakh show income below the exemption limit of Rs2.5 lakh p.a.; 1.95 crore show income between Rs2.5 to Rs5 lakh; 52 lakh show income between Rs5 to Rs10 lakhs, and only 24 lakh people show income above Rs10 lakhs. All in all, the dreams many of us had harboured, of having a significantly lighter tax burden in the new financial year commencing this April, have been shattered. But how much of a benefit will it offer tax payers in different pay bands. For instance, Paytm founder and CEO really thinks the Union Budget 2017-18 is “a digital economy budget”.