Finance Minister Jaitley holds his briefcase as he leaves his office to present the Budget in the Parliament i... Read More



* PAN to be used as Unique Entity Number for non- individuals from April 1.

* Govt makes PAN mandatory for any entity entering into a financial transaction of Rs 2.5 lakh or more.

* This budget will accelerate economic growth, it is focused on all sectors: PM Modi

* Prime Minister Narendra Modi praises his finance minister Arun Jaitley for delivering a budget that is "farmer friendly, common citizen friendly, business environment-friendly and development friendly."

* Govt's health scheme to cover 10 crore poor families is world's largest government-funded health protection scheme.

* Arun Jaitley proposed to tax long term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh at 10 per cent without indexation.

* Electronic IT assessment will be rolled out across the country, leading to greater efficiency and transparency: FM

* Mobile phones set to become costlier as custom duty on them has been increased to 20 per cent.

* Health and education cess has been increased to 4 per cent.

* For senior citizens, exemption of interest income on bank deposits raised to Rs 50,000: FM Jaitley

* FM Jaitley proposes to introduce tax on distributed income by equity oriented mutual funds at 10 per cent.

* Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for salaried employees in lieu of transport and medical expenses: FM Jaitley

* Companies with turnover of up to Rs 250 crore to be taxed at 25 per cent: FM

* Arun Jaitley says that the government does not propose any changes in tax slabs for the salaried class this year.

* FM proposes a fiscal deficit of 3.3% of GDP for 2018-19.

* Finance Minister Arun Jaitley proposes revising emoluments as per the following structure:

-- Rs 5 lakh for the President of India

-- Rs 4 lakh for the Vice President

-- Rs 3.5 lakh for the Governors

* Jaitley also proposes automatic revision of emoluments of Parliamentarians every five years, indexed to inflation.

* We have already exceeded our disinvestment target, announces Arun Jaitley.

Disinvestment target for 2017-18 has been exceeded and will reach Rs 1 lakh crore. Target for 2018-19 is Rs 80,000 crore.

* 5 lakh WiFi hotspots will be set up in rural areas to provide easy internet access.

* Government will take all steps to eliminate use of cryptocurrencies which are funding illegitimate transactions.

* Govt announces Amrut program to focus on water supply to all households in 500 cities. Water supply contracts for 494 projects worth Rs 19,428 core will be awarded: FM

* NITI Aayog will establish a national programme to direct our efforts in the area of Artificial Intelligence towards national development: FM

* Airport capacity to be hiked to handle 1 billion trips every year.

* Arun Jaitley says that 4,000 km of new railway track will be laid down by 2019.

* All railways stations with footfall more than 25,000 to have escalators, says the Finance Minister.

* Mumbai transport receives Rs 40,000 crore.

* The government will undertake redevelopment of 600 major railway stations across the country.

* Arun Jaitley announces capital expenditure of Rs 1,48,528 crore for Indian Railways in 2018-19.

* National Heritage City Development Augmentation Scheme has been undertaken to preserve and protect heritage cities in the country, announces the Finance Minister.

* Government to contribute 12 per cent of EPF contribution for new employees in all sectors: FM

* Infrastructure is the growth driver of economy: Jaitley

* Target of 3 lakh crore for lending under PM Mudra Yojana: FM

* MSME enterprises are a major element for growth, says Jaitley. He also added that mass formalisation of MSME sector is happening after demonetisation and GST.

* Govt will launch health scheme to cover 10 crore poor families, Arun Jaitley says.

* The Government is slowly but steadily progressing towards universal health coverage: FM

* Government aims to bring 60 crore bank accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana.

* Eklavya schools to be started for Scheduled Tribe populations: Finance Minister

* Rs 600 crore allocated to Tuberculosis patients undergoing treatment.

* Govt will set up two new Schools of Planning and Architecture, says Finance Minister Jaitley.

* To tackle brain drain, Jaitley announces scheme to identify bright students pursuing B Tech in premiere engineering institutes, and providing them higher-education opportunities in the IITs and IISc. These students will receive handsome fellowships, and will be expected to dedicate a few hours to teach in higher education institutions weekly.

* Specialised railway university to be set up at Vadodara.

* Jaitley proposed integrated BEd programme for teachers: "training of teachers during service is essential." Technology will be the biggest driver in improving the quality of education.

* Budget allocates money for social security and protection programme for all widows and orphaned children.

* We have a target to provide all Indians with their own homes by 2022, says Jaitley.

* Ujjwala scheme to amplify targets, will now provide 8 crore rural women free LPG connections.

* Air pollution in Delhi-NCR has been a cause of concern, govt has proposed subsidised machinery for in-situ management of crop residue in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT Delhi.

* Govt of India will take necessary measures to put in place measures for the state government to purchase surplus solar power produced by local farmers at sutiable prices.

* Arun Jaitley proposes a sum of Rs 500 crore for 'Operation Green' on the lines of 'Operation Flood'.

* Food processing sector is going at an average of 8 per cent per annum.

* We have been saying it for years that India is primarily an agricultural country: Jaitley

* Arun Jaitley on Minimum Support Price of agricultural products: Only increasing the MSP is not enough, the government will fix the MSP of agricultural products at 1.5 times the market rate.

* Our emphasis is on generating higher benefits and productive employment for the farmers: Jaitley while addressing the agricultural sector in his Budget speech 2018.

* Our government has worked sincerely, and without weighing the political costs, hoping that benefits are delivered to people at their doorsteps. The Direct Benefit Transfer system of India is a success story that is reiterated across the world: Jaitley.

* This year's Budget will particularly focus on agriculture, says Jaitley.

* The finance minister also pointed out that India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

* Indian economy has performed very well since our government took over in May 2014, says Arun Jaitley.

* Arun Jaitey recalls the measures -- like GST, FDI, demonetisation, etc. -- taken by the NDA government in the past four years that have impacted the economy of the country.

* Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents Union Budget 2018-19 in Parliament.

* The cabinet, in a meeting, approved the Budget.

* Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has arrived in the Parliament to present his Budget for the year 2018-19.

* The Budget of 2018 is India's first after the implementation of the Goods and Services tax (GST) in June last year.

