Union Budget 2017-18

Union Budget 2017-18

Question: What is the exemption limit on personal income tax in the 2017-18 financial year?
(a) 250000
(b) 300000
(c) 500000
(d) 400000
Ans: (a)
Related Fact :

  • On 1st February, 2017 Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2017-18 in the Parliament.
  • Below are the main highlights of the Budget.
  • CPI-based inflation declined from 6% in July 2016 to 3.4% in December, 2016.
  • India’s Current Account Deficit declined from about 1% of GDP last year to 0.3% of GDP in the first half of 2016-17.
  • FDI grew 36% in H1 2016-17 over H1 2015-16, despite 5% reduction in global FDI inflows. Foreign exchange reserves have reached 361 billion US Dollars as on 20th January, 2017.
    CHALLENGES IN 2017-18:
  • The US Federal Reserve’s , intention to increase policy rates in 2017, may lead to lower capital inflows and higher outflows from the emerging economies.
  • Signs of retreat from globalisation of goods, services and people, as pressures for protectionism are building up.
    TRANSFORMATIONAL REFORMS IN LAST YEAR:
  • Enactment of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code; amendment to the RBI Act for inflation targeting; enactment of the Aadhar bill for disbursement of financial subsidies and benefits.
  • Budget 2017-18 contains 3 major reforms:
    First, presentation of Budget advanced to 1st February to enable the Ministries to operationalise all activities from the commencement of the financial year.
  • Second, merger of Railways Budget with General Budget to bring Railways to the centre stage of Government’s Fiscal Policy.
  • Third, removal of plan and nonplan classification of expenditure to facilitate a holistic view of allocations for sectors and ministries.
  • Agenda for 2017-18 is : “Transform, Energise and Clean India” – TEC India
  • The budget is focused on Ten distinct themes to foster this broad agenda:
  • Farmers : committed to double the income in 5 years
  • Rural Population : providing employment & basic infrastructure
  • Youth : energising them through education, skills and jobs
  • The Poor and the Underprivileged : strengthening the systems of social security, health care and affordable housing
  • Infrastructure: for efficiency, productivity and quality of life
  • Financial Sector : growth & stability by stronger institutions
  • Digital Economy : for speed, accountability and transparency
  • Public Service : effective governance and efficient service delivery through people’s participation
  • Prudent Fiscal Management: to ensure optimal deployment of resources and preserve fiscal stability
  • Tax Administration: honouring the honest
  • Farmers:
  • Target for agricultural credit in 2017-18 has been fixed at a record level of 10 lakh crores.
  • Farmers will also benefit from 60 days’ interest waiver announced on 31 Dec 2016.
  • To ensure flow of credit to small farmers, Government to support NABARD for computerisation and integration of all 63,000 functional Primary Agriculture Credit Societies with the Core Banking System of District Central Cooperative Banks. This will be done in 3 years at an estimated cost of 1,900 crores.
  • Coverage under Fasal Bima Yojana scheme will be increased from 30% of cropped area in 2016-17 to 40% in 2017-18 and 50% in 2018-19 for which a budget provision of 9000 crore has been made.
  • New mini labs in Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and ensure 100% coverage of all 648 KVKs in the country for soil sample testing.
  • Long Term Irrigation Fund already set up in NABARD to be augmented by 100% to take the total corpus of this Fund to 40,000 crores.
  • Dedicated Micro Irrigation Fund in NABARD to achieve ‘per drop more crop’ with an initial corpus of ` 5,000 crores.
  • Coverage of National Agricultural Market (e-NAM) to be expanded from 250 markets to 585. Assistance up to 75 lakhs will be provided to every e-NAM.
  • A model law on contract farming to be prepared and circulated among the States for adoption.
  • Dairy Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund to be set up in NABARD with a corpus of 2000 crores and will be increased to 8000 crores over 3 years.
    Rural Population:
  • Over 3 lakh crores spent in rural areas every year, for rural poor from Central Budget, State Budgets, Bank linkage for self-help groups etc.
  • Aim to bring one crore households out of poverty and to make 50,000 Gram Panchayats poverty free by 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Gandhi ji.
  • Women participation in MGNREGA has increased to 55% from less than 48% MGNREGA allocation to be the highest ever at 48,000 crores in 2017-18.
  • Pace of construction of PMGSY roads accelerated to 133 km roads per day in 2016-17, against an avg. of 73 km during 2011-2014.
  • Government has taken up the task of connecting habitations with more than 100 persons in left wing extremism affected Blocks under PMGSY by 2019. The allocation for PMGSY, including the State’s Share is 27,000 crores in 2017-18
  • Allocation for Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin increased from 15,000 crores in BE 2016-17 to 23,000 crores in 2017-18 with a target to complete 1 crore houses by 2019 for the houseless and those living in kutcha houses.
  • 100% village electrification to be achieve by 1st May 2018.
  • Sanitation coverage in rural India has gone up from 42% in Oct 2014 to about 60%. Open Defecation Free villages are now being given priority for piped water supply.
  • As part of a sub mission of the National Rural Drinking Water Programme, it is proposed to provide safe drinking water to over 28,000 arsenic and fluoride affected habitations in the next four years.
    Total allocation for Rural, Agriculture and Allied sectors is 187223 crores
  • Youth :
  • SWAYAM platform, leveraging IT, to be launched with at least 350 online courses. This would enable students to virtually attend courses taught by the best faculty
  • National Testing Agency to be set-up as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation to conduct all entrance examinations for higher education institutions
  • Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Kendras to be extended to more than 600 districts across the country. 100 India International Skills Centres will be established across the country.
  • Skill Acquisition and Knowledge Awareness for Livelihood Promotion programme (SANKALP) to be launched at a cost of 4000 crores. SANKALP will provide market relevant training to 3.5 crore youth.
  • Next phase of Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE) will also be launched in 2017-18 at a cost of 2,200 crores.
  • A scheme for creating employment in the leather and footwear industries along the lines in Textiles Sector to be launched.
  • Incredible India 2.0 Campaign will be launched across the world to promote tourism and employment.
  • The Poor and the Underprivileged:
  • Mahila Shakti Kendra will be set up with an allocation of 500 crores in 14 lakh ICDS Anganwadi Centres. This will provide one stop convergent support services for empowering rural women with opportunities for skill development, employment, digital literacy, health and nutrition.
  • Under Maternity Benefit Scheme 6,000 each will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of pregnant women who undergo institutional delivery and vaccinate their children.
  • National Housing Bank will refinance individual housing loans of about 20,000 crore in 2017-18
  • Government has prepared an action plan to eliminate Kala-Azar and Filariasis by 2017, Leprosy by 2018, Measles by 2020 and Tuberculosis by 2025 is also targeted.
  • Action plan has been prepared to reduce Infant Mortality Rate from 39 in 2014 to 28 by 2019 and MMR from 167 in 2011-13 to 100 by 2018-2020
  • To create additional 5,000 Post Graduate seats per annum to ensure adequate availability of specialist doctors to strengthen Secondary and Tertiary levels of health care.
  • Two new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences to be set up in Jharkhand and Gujarat
  • Legislative reforms will be undertaken to simplify, rationalise and amalgamate the existing labour laws into 4 Codes on (i) wages; (ii) industrial relations; (iii) social security and welfare; and (iv) safety and working conditions.
  • Propose to amend the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules to ensure availability of drugs at reasonable prices and promote use of generic medicines
  • The allocation for Scheduled Castes has been increased by 35% compared to BE 2016-17. The allocation for Scheduled Tribes has been increased to 31,920 crores and for Minority Affairs to 4,195 crores
  • For senior citizens, Aadhar based Smart Cards containing their health details will be introduced
  • Infrastructure:
  • For transportation sector as a whole, including rail, roads, shipping, provision of 2,41,387 crores has been made in 2017-18.
  • For 2017-18, the total capital and development expenditure of Railways has been pegged at 1,31,000 crores. This includes 55,000 crores provided by the Government.
  • For passenger safety, a Rashtriya Rail Sanraksha Kosh will be created with a corpus of 1 lakh crores over a period of 5 years.
  • Unmanned level crossings on Broad Gauge lines will be eliminated by 2020.
  • Railway lines of 3,500 kms will be commissioned in 2017-18. During 2017-18, at least 25 stations are expected to be awarded for station redevelopment.
  • 500 stations will be made differently abled friendly by providing lifts and escalators.
  • It is proposed to feed about 7,000 stations with solar power in the medium term.
  • SMS based Clean My Coach Service has been started
  • ‘Coach Mitra’, a single window interface, to register all coach related complaints and requirements to be launched.
  • By 2019, all coaches of Indian Railways will be fitted with bio toilets. Tariffs of Railways would be fixed, taking into consideration costs, quality of service and competition from other forms of transport.
  • A new Metro Rail Policy along with new Metro Rail Act will be announced with focus on innovative models of implementation and financing, as well as standardisation and indigenisation of hardware and software.
  • In the road sector, Budget allocation for highways increased from 57,976 crores in BE 2016-17 to 64,900 crores in 2017-18.
  • 2,000 kms of coastal connectivity roads have been identified for construction and development.
  • Total length of roads, including those under PMGSY, built from 2014-15 till the current year is about 1,40,000 kms which is significantly higher than previous three years.
  • Selected airports in Tier 2 cities will be taken up for operation and maintenance in the PPP mode.
  • By the end of 2017-18, high speed broadband connectivity on optical fibre will be available in more than 1,50,000 gram panchayats, under BharatNet. A DigiGaon initiative will be launched to provide tele-medicine, education and skills through digital technology.
  • Proposed to set up strategic crude oil reserves at 2 more locations, namely, Chandikhole in Odisha and Bikaner in Rajasthan. This will take our strategic reserve capacity to 15.33 MMT.
  • Second phase of Solar Park development to be taken up for additional 20,000 MW capacity.
  • For creating an eco-system to make India a global hub for electronics manufacturing a provision of 745 crores in 2017-18 in incentive schemes like M-SIPS and EDF.
  • A new and restructured Central scheme with a focus on export infrastructure, namely, Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES) will be launched in 2017-18
  • Financial sector:
  • Foreign Investment Promotion Board to be abolished in 2017-18 and further liberalisation of FDI policy is under consideration.
  • Bill relating to curtail the menace of illicit deposit schemes will be introduced. A bill relating to resolution of financial firms will be introduced in the current Budget Session of Parliament. This will contribute to stability and resilience of our financial system.
  • A mechanism to streamline institutional arrangements for resolution of disputes in infrastructure related construction contracts, PPP and public utility contracts will be introduced as an amendment to the Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996.
  • A Computer Emergency Response Team for our Financial Sector (CERT-Fin) will be established.
  • Government will put in place a revised mechanism and procedure to ensure time bound listing of identified CPSEs on stock exchanges. The shares of Railway PSEs like IRCTC, IRFC and IRCON will be listed in stock exchanges.
  • Propose to create an integrated public sector ‘oil major’ which will be able to match the performance of international and domestic private sector oil and gas companies.
  • In line with the ‘Indradhanush’ roadmap, ` 10,000 crores for recapitalisation of Banks provided in 2017-18.
  • Lending target under Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana to be set at 2.44 lakh crores. Priority will be given to Dalits, Tribals, Backward Classes and Women.
  • Digital Economy:
  • 125 lakh people have adopted the BHIM app so far. The Government will launch two new schemes to promote the usage of BHIM; these are, Referral Bonus Scheme for individuals and a Cashback Scheme for merchants
  • Aadhar Pay, a merchant version of Aadhar Enabled Payment System, will be launched shortly
    A Mission will be set up with a target of 2,500 crore digital transactions for 2017-18 through UPI, USSD, Aadhar Pay, IMPS and debit cards
  • Banks have targeted to introduce additional 10 lakh new POS terminals by March 2017. They will be encouraged to introduce 20 lakh Aadhar based POS by September 2017
  • Proposed to create a Payments Regulatory Board in the Reserve Bank of India by replacing the existing Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems
    Public Service:
  • To utilise the Head Post Offices as front offices for rendering passport services
  • A Centralised Defence Travel System has been developed through which travel tickets can be booked online by soldiers and officers
  • Commemorate both Champaran and Khordha revolts appropriately
    Prudent Fiscal Management:
  • Stepped up allocation for Capital expenditure by 25.4% over the previous year.
  • Total resources being transferred to the States and the Union Territories with Legislatures is 4.11 lakh crores, against 3.60 lakh crores in BE 2016-17.
  • For the first time, a consolidated Outcome Budget, covering all Ministries and Departments, is being laid along with the other Budget documents.
  • FRBM Committee has recommended 3% fiscal deficit for the next three years, keeping in mind the sustainable debt target and need for public investment, fiscal deficit for 2017-18 is targeted at 3.2% of GDP and Government remains committed to achieve 3% in the following year.
  • Net market borrowing of Government restricted to 3.48 lakh crores after buyback in 2017-18, much lower than 4.25 lakh crores of the previous year.
  • Revenue Deficit of 2.3% in BE 2016-17 stands reduced to 2.1% in the Revised Estimates. The Revenue Deficit for next year is pegged at 1.9% , against 2% mandated by the FRBM Act.
  • AFFORDABLE HOUSING AND REAL ESTATE SECTOR :
  • Between 8th November and 30th December 2016, deposits between 2 lakh Rupees and 80 lakh Rupees were made in about 1.09 crore accounts with an average deposit size of 5.03 lakh. Deposits of more than 80 lakh were made in 1.48 lakh accounts with average deposit size of 3.31 crores.
  • Under the scheme for profit-linked income tax deduction for promotion of affordable housing, carpet area instead of built up area of 30 and 60 Sq.mtr. will be counted.
  • The 30 Sq.mtr. limit will apply only in case of municipal limits of 4 metropolitan cities
  • MEASURES FOR STIMULATING GROWTH:
  • Concessional withholding rate of 5% charged on interest earned by foreign entities in external commercial borrowings or in bonds and Government securities is extended to 30.6.2020. This benefit is also extended to Rupee Denominated (Masala) Bonds
  • For the purpose of carry forward of losses in respect of start-ups, the condition of continuous holding of 51% of voting rights has been relaxed subject to the condition that the holding of the original promoter/promoters continues. Also the profit (linked deduction) exemption available to the start-ups for 3 years out of 5 years is changed to 3 years out of 7 years.
  • MAT credit is allowed to be carried forward up to a period of 15 years instead of 10 years at present
  • In order to make MSME companies more viable, income tax for companies with annual turnover upto 50 crore is reduced to 25%.
  • Allowable provision for Non-Performing Asset of Banks increased from 7.5% to 8.5%.
  • Basic customs duty on LNG reduced from 5% to 2.5%.
  • PROMOTING DIGITAL ECONOMY:
  • Under scheme of presumptive income for small and medium tax payers whose turnover is upto 2 crores, the present, 8% of their turnover which is counted as presumptive income is reduced to 6% in respect of turnover which is by non-cash means.
  • No transaction above 3 lakh would be permitted in cash subject to certain exceptions.
  • TRANSPARENCY IN ELECTORAL FUNDING:
  • Maximum amount of cash donation, a political party can receive, will be ` 2000/- from one person.
  • Political parties will be entitled to receive donations by cheque or digital mode from their donors.
  • Every political party would have to file its return within the time prescribed in accordance with the provision of the Income-tax Act.
  • Existing exemption to the political parties from payment of income-tax would be available only subject to the fulfillment of these conditions.
  • EASE OF DOING BUSINESS:
  • Threshold limit for audit of business entities who opt for presumptive income scheme increased from 1 crore to 2 crores. Similarly, the threshold for maintenance of books for individuals and HUF increased from turnover of 10 lakhs to 25 lakhs or income from 1.2 lakhs to 2.5 lakhs
  • Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) Category I & II exempted from indirect transfer provision.
  • Indirect transfer provision shall not apply in case of redemption of shares or interests outside India.
  • Commission payable to individual insurance agents exempt from the requirement of TDS subject to their filing a self-declaration that their income is below taxable limit.
  • Under scheme for presumptive taxation for professionals with receipt upto 50 lakhs p.a. advance tax can be paid in one installment instead of four.
  • Time period for revising a tax return is being reduced to 12 months from completion of financial year, at par with the time period for filing of return.
  • PERSONAL INCOME-TAX:
  • Existing rate of taxation for individual assesses between income of 2.5 lakhs to 5 lakhs reduced to 5% from the present rate of 10%.
  • In the case of every individual, being a resident in India, who is of the age of sixty years or more but less than eighty years at any time during the previous year will be entitled to tax exemption upto personal income of 3 lakhs.
  • Similarly every individual, being a resident in India, who is of the age of eighty years or more at anytime during the previous year will enjoy tax exemption up to personal income of 5 lakhs.
  • Surcharge of 10% of tax payable on categories of individuals whose annual taxable income is between `50 lakhs and 1 crore.
  • Simple one-page form to be filed as Income Tax Return for the category of individuals having taxable income upto 5 lakhs other than business income.
    GOODS AND SERVICES TAX:
  • The GST Council has finalised its recommendations on almost all the issues based on consensus on the basis of 9 meetings held.
  • Preparation of IT system for GST is also on schedule.
  • The extensive reach-out efforts to trade and industry for GST will start from 1st April, 2017 to make them aware of the new taxation system.
  • RAPID (Revenue, Accountability, Probity, Information and Digitisation):
  • Maximise efforts for e-assessment in the coming year.
  • Enforcing greater accountability of officers of Tax Department for specific act of commission and omission

Reference:
http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2017-18/bh/bh1.pdf