The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman made her maiden Budget Speech July 5, 2019 and presented the Union Budget 2019-20 before the Parliament. 

10-point Vision for the decade

• Building Team India with Jan Bhagidari: Minimum Government Maximum Governance.

• Achieving green Mother Earth and Blue Skies through a pollution-free India.

• Making Digital India reach every sector of the economy.

• Launching Gaganyan, Chandrayan, other Space and Satellite programmes.

• Building physical and social infrastructure.

• Water, water management, clean rivers.

• Blue Economy.

• Self-sufficiency and export of food-grains, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables.

• Achieving a healthy society via Ayushman Bharat, well-nourished women & children, safety of citizens.

• Emphasis on MSMEs, Start-ups, defence manufacturing, automobiles, electronics, fabs and batteries, and medical devices under Make in India.

The following are the key highlights of the Budget:

• Finance minister proposed to enhance surcharge on individual income of Rs 2-5 crore and over Rs 5 crore by 3% and 7% respectively. She said that those in the highest income bracket need to contribute more to national development.

• Custom duty on gold and other precious metals from 10% to 12.5% has been proposed.

• To provide further impetus to affordable housing, additional deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on interest paid on loans borrowed up to March 31, 2020 for purchase of house up to Rs 45 lakhs.

• Special additional duty and road and infrastructure cess on diesel and petrol to be increased by Re 2/litre.

• From 1.85 trillion dollars in 2014, the economy has reached 2.7 trillion US dollars; We can very well reach 5 trillion dollars in the next few years. The Indian economy will grow to become a 3 trillion dollar economy this year itself.

• Government has already moved GST council to lower the GST rate on electric vehicles(EV) from 12% to 5%.

• Finance minister said that the fiscal deficit in 2019 is 3.3%, brought down from 3.4%.

• All companies having annual turnover of 400 crores, will now be under the bracket of 25% corporate tax rate . This will cover 99.3% of all the companies.

• To provide further impetus to affordable housing, additional deduction of 1.5 lakh rupees on interest paid on loans borrowed upto 31 March 2020 for purchase of house up to Rs 45 lakhs.

• 'Gandhi-pedia' too to be developed on the lines of encyclopedia to help promote Gandhian school of thought.

  Sector-wise highlights

Employment

• 80 Livelihood business incubators and 20 technology business incubators to be set up in 2019-20 under ASPIRE to develop 75,000 skilled entrepreneurs in agro-rural industries.

• Increase focus on skill sets required by the youth to apply for job opportunities abroad like language skills and artificial intelligence (AI).

• To start a television programme on DD National, exclusively for startups. This programme will be designed and executed by startup's themselves.

• To further encourage women entrepreneurship, Women Self-help Groups (SHGs) Interest Subvention Programme to be expanded to all districts in India.

Banks

• Government considering to go below 51% to an appropriate level of ownership stake in non-financial public sector undertakings on case by case basis.

• Public Sector Banks (PSBs) to be provided Rs 70,000 crore to boost capital and improve credit.

• Proposals for strengthening regulatory authority of RBI over NBFCs have been made.

• Regulation authority over housing finance sector to be returned from National Housing Bank to RBI.

Railways

• Railway infra would need an investment of 50 lakh crores between 2018 and 2030; PPP to be used to unleash faster development and delivery of passenger freight services.

• Railways to be encouraged to invest more in suburban railways through Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV) structures such as Rapid Regional Transport System (RRTS); more Public Private Partner (PPP) initiatives to be encouraged in rail sector.

• Massive programme of railway station modernization to be launched in 2019.

  Electric Vehicles (Evs)

• Government has already moved GST council to lower the GST rate on electric vehicles(EV) from 12% to 5%.

• Government will provide Rs 1.5 lakh income tax deduction on interest payments on loan taken for purchase of electric vehicles.

• FAME II scheme aims to encourage faster adoption of electric vehicles by right incentives and charging infrastructure.

• Customs duty on certain parts of electric vehicles being exempted to promote e-mobility.

Tax

• Direct tax collection increased by 78%; Tax collection rose from Rs 6.38 lakh crore in 2013-14 to Rs 11.37 lakh crore in 2018.

• All companies having annual turnover of 400 crores, will now be under the bracket of 25% corporate tax rate . This will cover 99.3% of all the companies.

• More than 120 crore Indians now have Aadhar card, therefore for ease of tax payers I propose to make PAN card and Aadhar card interchangeable and allow those who don't have PAN to file returns by simply quoting Aadhar number and use it wherever they require to use PAN.

• Faceless income tax assessment in electronic mode involving no human interface to be launched this year in a phased manner, to reduce taxpayer harassment.

Defence

• Defence equipment not manufactured in India exempted from basic customs duty

Other Indirect Tax provisions

• Export duty rationalised on raw and semi-finished leather

• Increase in Special Additional Excise Duty and Road and Infrastructure Cess each by Rs. 1 per litre on petrol and diesel

• Custom duty on gold and other precious metals increased

• Legacy Dispute Resolution Scheme for quick closure of pending litigations in Central Excise and Service tax from pre-GST regime

GST

• Rs 350 crore allocated for 2% interest subvention for all GST-registered MSMEs on fresh or incremental loans.

• A simplified single monthly return being rolled out; taxpayers with annual turnover less than 5 crore need to file only quarterly returns.

• Fully automated GST Refund module shall be implemented; multiple tax ledgers to be replaced by one; invoice details to be captured in a central system.

Connectivity

• Comprehensive restructuring of National Highways Programme to be done, to ensure creation of National Highways Grid of desirable capacity. Government envisions using rivers for cargo transportation, which will also decongest roads and railways.

• 657 km of metro rail network has become operational in the country.

• The government has given a massive push to all forms of physical connectivity via PMGSY, Industrial corridors, Dedicated freight corridors, Bharatmala, Sagarmala, Jal Marg vikas and UDAN schemes.

Custom duty

• Basic customs duty on certain items to be increased to promote the cherished goal of Make In India.

• Import of defence equipment not manufactured in India are being exempted from basic customs duty.

• 5% customs duty being imposed on imported books, to promote domestic publishing and printing industry.

  Swachh Bharat Mission

• Proposal to expand Swachh Bharat mission to undertake solid waste management in every village.

• India to be open defecation free (ODF) by October 2 2019. To mark this occasion, Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra to be inaugurated at Raj Ghat, on the same day.
  
  Gandhi-pedia

• ‘Gandhi-pedia' too to be developed on the lines of Encyclopedia to help promote Gandhian school of thought.

  Education and research

• Establish a National Research Foundation to fund, to coordinate and to promote research in the country.

• National Research Foundation to be set up to strengthen overall research ecosystem in the country; funds available under all Ministries to be integrated with NRF.

• New National Educational Policy to be brought in to transform Indian educational system; major changes in higher as well as school system to be introduced.

• Rs 400 crore under head, World Class Institutions in 2019-20, more than three times the revised estimates of previous year. 'Study In India' to be started to bring in foreign students into Indian higher education system.

• The Stand Up India Scheme which focuses on skill development has been extended upto the year 2025. Multiple labour laws to be streamlined into a set of four Labour Codes. New-age skills like AI, Big Data, VR, robotics and internet of things to be promoted.

Digital payments

• To discourage business payments in cash, Tax Deduction at Source of 2% to be levied on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs 1 crore in a year from a bank account.

• Business establishments with annual turnover more than 50 crore rupees may offer low-cost digital payments; no charges or merchant discount rates to be imposed on customers or merchants for these.
  
  Disinvestment

• Strategic disinvestment of select Central Public Sector Enterprises will continue to be a priority; Strategic disinvestment of Air India will re-initiate; 1 lakh 5000 rupees is disinvestment target for 2019-20.

  Rural

• By 2022, every single rural family except those who are unwilling to take the connection, will have an electricity and a clean cooking facility.

• In second phase of PMAY-Gramin, 1.95 crore houses to be provided to eligible beneficiaries, during 2019-20 to 2021-22; they will have amenities such as LPG, electricity and toilets.

• 10,000 new Farmer Producer Organizations to be formed to ensure economies of scale for farmers over the next five years.

  Pension

• Pension benefit to be extended to around 3 crore retail traders and shopkeepers with an annual turnover less than Rs 1.5 crore under Pradhan Mantri Karam Yogi Man Dhan Scheme.

Space

• To harness India's space ability commercially, a public sector enterprise, New Space India Limited (NSIL) has been incorporated to tap the benefits of Isro.

• Aadhaar card for NRIs with Indian passports to be issued after their arrival in India, without waiting for the mandatory 180 days.

• To provide NRIs seamless access to Indian equities, NRI portfolio investment route to be merged with foreign portfolio investment route.

For detailed highlights, please visit the following link:

http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=191301