General (Aam) Budget 2019

About the Union Budget 2019-20

The Union Budget is the premier document featuring the financial planning and strategy of the Government of India for the next fiscal. The Union Budget of India for the 2019-20 fiscal was presented in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the parliament) by the Union Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharam on July 5, 2019. In her maiden budget, Nirmala Sitharam focused to cut taxes on business and raise spending in a bid to shore up consumption and faltering economic growth. It also focuses on making India a $5 Trillion Economy.

Nirmala Sitharam's budget team comprised Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur and Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian. The official team was led by Finance Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg, Expenditure Secretary Girish Chandra Murmu, Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, DIPAM Secretary Atanu Chakraborty, and Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Kumar.

Main Highlights of the Union Budget 2019-20

Transportation

• Rs 10,000 crore allocated to FAME II scheme. The scheme aims to encourage faster adoption of electric vehicles by right incentives and charging infrastructure.
• Rs. 50 Lakh Crore investment needed for railway infrastructure till 2030.
• Rail and Metro projects for 300 Kms across country.
• A national transport card for universal travel which can used on various modes of transport, including road, railways etc.
• Upfront incentives on purchase of Electric Vehicles
• Rs.80,250 crore to upgrade 1.25 lakh km of rural roads under PMGSY over the next 5 years.
• Develop inland waterways, use rivers for cargo transport to decongest roads and railways

Agriculture

• Aim to create 10,000 new Farmer Producer Companies (FPOs).
• Measures to allow farmers to benefit from eNAM.
• Work with States to implement eNAM and replicate the model of zero budget farming.
• Suport Private Entrepreneurship for value addition in farming sector.
• Proposition of Pradhan Mantri Sampada Yojana to address critical infrastructure gap in fisheries sector
• Increase in Ease of doing business for farmers.

Education

• National educational policy to focus on higher education planned. Major changes in school and higher education. Plan to establish a National Research Foundation Will identify thrust areas of national importance.
• National Research Foundation will accumulate funds by all ministries and use it to prioritize and avoid duplication of research.
• Study in India programme to bring foreign students to India. Also presses for greater autonomy for institutes to make India a hub for higher education.
• 400 crore provided under 'World Class Institutions' for financial year 2019-2020.
• 10 million youth to take up industry-relevant skill training under the Kaushal Vikas Yojana.

Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

• 350 crore rupees allocated for 2% interest subvention for all GST-registered MSMEs on fresh or incremental loans.
• Govt to create a payment platform for MSMEs to enable filing of bills and payment on the platform itself to cut down payment time.
• Work with state govts to remove barriers, cross subsidy, surcharges, undesirable duties on open access sales, or captive generation for industrial & bulk power consumers.

Economy

• Electronic Fundraising Platform, a social stock exchange, to be set up to list social enterprises and voluntary organizations working for social welfare objectives
• 100 new clusters to be set up in 2019-20 under #SFURTI, which will enable 50,000 artisans to join the economic value chain
• Interoperability of RBI depositories and SEBI depositories necessary for seamlesss transfer of treasury bills; govt will take necessary measures in this regard in consultation with RBI and SEBI.
• Public sector banks to be provided 70,000 crore rupees to boost capital and improve credit.
• A new series of coins of Re 1, Rs 2, Rs 5, Rs 10, Rs 20 easily identifiable to the visually impaired to be made availabe for pulic use.
• Proposal to expand women SHG interest subvention to all villages, OD of Rs 5,000 allowed per woman in SHG, one woman in every SHG eligible for a loan of Rs 1 lakh under MUDRA scheme.

Taxes

Additional tax deduction of Rs 150,000 on interest paid on housing loans for self-occupied house owners.

In order to discourage the practice of avoiding Dividend Distribution Tax (DDT) through buyback of shares by listed companies, it is proposed to provide that listed companies shall also be liable to pay additional tax at 20% in case of buyback of share, as is the case currently for unlisted companies.

Additional income tax deduction of Rs 150,000 on interest paid on loans taken to purchase electric vehicles.

All companies with annual turnover of up to Rs 400 crore to have a corporate tax of 25 percent.

Funds raised by Startups will not face any scrutiny by the income tax department.

CBDT will set up mechanism to alleviate issues with pending cases regarding angel tax.

Tax relief for individuals with Income less than 5 Lakhs

In order to encourage digital payments, levy of TDS at source of 2 per cent for cash withdrawals exceeding Rs 1 crore from a bank account.

No separate e-way bill from 2020, e-Invoice System will be introduced

Rural Initiatives

• By 2022, 75th year Independence Day, Every single family, except the unwilling, will have electricity and clean cooking fuel.
• 1.95 cr houses to be provided in phase 2 of Pradhan Mantari Awas Yojana By 2022

Others

• Finance Minister sets target of Rs 1.05 lakh crore from disinvestment in FY20.
• Govt to invest Rs 100 lakh crore in infra over next 5 years.
• 17 iconic tourism sites 7 are being developed to enhance visitor experience.
• Issuing adhar cards for NRIs with Indian passport after their arrival in India without waiting for mandatory 180 days.
• National sports education board to be set up. Government committed to expand Khelo India Scheme.
• 81 lakh houses in urban India have been sanctioned, 24 lakh already delivered.
• Make India Open Defecation free by October 2 , this year. 95% of cities have become open defecation free.
• Water resource department aims "Har ghar jal" by 2024 under the Jal Jeevan Mission.
• New CPSE --New Space India Ltd to explore commercialisation of space programme. New Space India Limited has been incorporated as the new commercial arm of Dept of Space for research and development carried out by ISRO.