The union Budget 2018 is the hot topic for discussion these days. Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley is busy with media personnel. The highlights from his speech about the new budget plan of 2018 are mentioned below.
Corporate Taxation
For the Corporate sector, the Bill is not very pleasing. Tax relief is only for those companies which have a turnover of less than ₹250 crore. They will now be taxed at 25%. This shall benefit 99% of the companies as marked by the Finance Minister. The other companies after this, filling return, out of them 7000 will be kept in the 30% tax slab. Long-term capital gains exceeding one lakh on the sale of equity shares will also be taxed at 10%. So it will be a wound for retail investors as well as the corporates. The date for such taxation is 1st of Feb, 2018 and all gains made before it will not be charged. The government aims to collect around ₹20000 crores as revenue in the first year.
Personal Taxation
There are not many changes in the personal taxation plan, and the income tax structure is pretty much the same. Though there has been a reduction of ₹40,000 for taxpayers working on salaried jobs. Medical reimbursement for government workers in case of hospitalization will continue. This will directly be beneficial for around 2.5 crore people that form around one-fourth of the total tax payers in the country. The loss of revenue for the government in this form would be around 8 thousand crore INR. Taking note of it, the Government, on the other hand, decided to increase the health and education cess to 4%. This will provide the government with a revenue collection of ₹11,000 crore.
Senior Citizens
The bill is a boon for the senior section of the society as they are given better tax exemptions. They will now have a tax exemption of ₹50,000 from the current sum of ₹10,000. Jaitley also announced a reduction in the health insurance premium under Section 80D of the Income Tax Act to ₹50,000. For old people with critical illness, this would be further reduced to 1 lakh INR. In total Government would be spending around 4000 crores on the senior citizens.
Petrol and Diesel
The basic excise duty on diesel and petrol has been cut down by ₹2. The additional excise duty on fuel is also reduced by ₹6.
Farmers and Weaker Section
- For farmers, this Budget is a blessing in disguise. The MSP of all crops will be set to one and a half times the production cost of those crops. Indian cottage industries will also be promoted. Agriculture Market infrastructure Fund of ₹2000 crore is allotted.
- Jaitley also announced an allocation of ₹1,290 crore for a new National Bamboo Mission. Also, ₹10,000 crore will be allotted to the animal husbandry and fishery industry.
- The agricultural budget set for the session of 2018-2019 is ₹11 lakh crore. There will be 100 % tax exemption for those companies which are registered as farmer producer companies and have a turnover of hundred crores or more.
- Health Protection Scheme is announced under which annual health coverage of up to Five lakh INR per family will be offered. This will benefit 10 crores under privileged families. This is the largest government-funded program in the world.
- 8 Crore poor women out of a final target of five crore beneficiaries will be given free LPG connections under the Ujwala Scheme. There is an allocation of ₹16,000 crore under Saubhagya Yojana which will enable four crores BPL households with electricity connection free of charge.
