Budget: No change in income tax slab, HRA increased to 60K

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Published on: 29 Feb 2016 5:05 AM GMT
Budget: No change in income tax slab, HRA increased to 60K
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New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Budget for financial year 2016-17 in Parliament on Monday.

Jaitley paid emphasis to boost the Agricultural sector while in a relief to common man the House Rent Allowance (HRA) has been proposed to be increased from Rs 24,000 to Rs 60,000. A new Cess of 0.5 per cent on all taxable services to be called as Krishi Kalyan Cess has been proposed in the budget.

Tax proposals:

  • Tax proposals to provide relief to small taxpayers through rebates
  • Rs 60,000 tax redemption for those who do not have house under House Rent Allowance.
  • Tax ceiling has been raised from 2000 to 5000 rupees.
  • First time home buyers get additional Rs 50,000 deduction for houses upto Rs 50 lakh, loan upto Rs 35 lakh.
  • Tax rebate for those earning less than Rs 5 Lakh.
  • For tax payers earning below Rs 5 lakh, ceiling on tax rebate increased by Rs 3,000.
  • Service tax exempted for housing construction of houses less than 60 sq. m.
  • Surcharge raised to 15 percent over the income of Rs 1 crore.
  • Imposed a cess called the Krishi Kalyan Cess (0.5 per cent on all taxable services).
  • Excise duty hiked on Gold and Diamond jewellery.
  • Additional levy of one per cent on luxury cars.
  • Excise duty on tobacco products hiked by 10 per cent-15 per cent.
  • One per cent cess on LPG, CNG and other such cars. 2.5 per cent on small diesel cars and 4.5 per cent on bigger cars.
  • Government is fully committed on removing black money from our economy.
  • Limited tax compliance window: 45 per cent including surcharge and penalties and immunity from prosecution.
  • Net tax revenue gain will be to the tune of 19610 crores.
  • Loss in revenue due to new tax proposals in indirect taxes will be Rs 1600 crores and gain from direct tax proposals will be Rs 21,210 crores.

Arun Jaitley:

  • Global economy is in a serious problem.
  • Indian economy is standing firm.
  • India's economic growth is extra-ordinary.
  • CPI inflation was 9 per cent it has come down to 5 per cent in this government, providing big relief to public.
  • The risk of global slowdown are mounting. Foreign markets are weak so we must believe in Indian markets.
  • The Annual budget is an opportunity for government to prioritise its working.
  • We have converted challenges into opportunity.

Agriculture:

  • Rs. 35,984 crores total allocation for farmers'welfare
  • Long term corpus will be made in NABARD of Rs 20,000 crores.
  • Rs 60,0000 crores for multi-lateral funding.
  • Soil health card scheme Rs 368 crores.
  • Rs 500 crores under Food Security Mission for Pulses procurement.
  • PMGSY has suffered due to lack of funds now we have allocated Rs 19,000 crores excluding states.
  • Total Rs 27,000 crores including the state share.
  • Rs 9 lakh crore. under National Disaster Funds.
  • Provision of Rs 15,000 crores has been made towards interest subversion for farmers.

Rural economy

  • Rs 2.87 lakh crores will be given as grant to municipality and gram panchayat.
  • Rs 38,500 crores for MNREGA, which is the highest.
  • Rs 8,500 crores for Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana.
  • Rs 9,000 crores for Swacch Bharat Yojana.
  • Rs 150 crores for National Land Record Programme.
  • Rs 650 crores for Panchayat institution.
  • Rs. 87,765 crores for rural development as a whole have been allocated in the budget
  • Rs 5,500 crore for crop insurance.
  • Rs 60,000 crore allotted for recharging of ground water.

Social Sector

  • Rs 2,500 crores for LPG connections for BPL households.
  • Rs 500 crores for Standup India mission for SC/ST youth.
  • A higher education financing agency to be setup with initial capital of Rs. 1000 crore.

Education:

  • A higher education financing agency to be setup with initial capital of Rs. 1000 crore
  • Rs 1700 crores for Skill India mission.
  • Rs 1000 crores for EPFO.

Infrastructure and investment sector:

  • Rs 55,000 crores for Roads and Highways excluding the funds of NHAI.
  • Total investment including PMGSY will be Rs 97,000 crores.
  • Rs 2.2 lakh crores for rail and road sectors.
  • 100% FDI in marketing of food products produced and manufactured in India.
  • Rs 25,000 crores for re-capitalization of banks.
  • Target of disbursement under MUDRA increased to Rs. 1.8 lakh crore.
  • Rs 8000 cr provided for Sagarmala project.
  • Rs 100 crores for celebrating the birth anniversary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Guru Govid Singh.

The budget:

The Budget or the annual union financial statement keeps the government's estimated receipts and expenditure for the financial year. It comes under articles 112 of the Indian Constitution. The budget comprises Capital and Revenue Budget.

Time of presenting the budget:

  • The budget till 2000 was presented at 1700 hours.
  • It was presented at 1100 hours for the first time in 2001 by then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha.
  • The budget is presented every year on the last working day of February.

Some interesting facts:

  • The first budget was presented by India's first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru in 1958-59.
  • The budget for 1973-74 is known as 'Black Budget' because during this year the budget deficit was Rs 550 crores.
  • CD Desmukh was the first Governor of Reserve Bank of India who presented the interim budget in 1951-52.
  • First interim budget was presented by R K Sanmukh Chetti.
  • The documents of budget were published in English before 1955-56.
  • Morarji Desai has presented the maximum number of budgets so far- eight
  • They included five annual and one interim budget in the second tenure when he was both Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister.
  • Morarji Desai was the only Finance Minister to present two budgets on his birthday – in 1964 and 1968 on February 29.
  • Indira Gandhi was the only woman Finance Minister who took over the Finance portfolio from 1970 to 1971.
  • R Venkataraman is the only finance minister of India who later also served as the President of India from 1987-92.
  • Jawaharlal Lal Nehru, Indira and Rajiv Gandhi have presented the budget while serving as the Prime Minister of India.
  • Corporate tax (today is known as Minimum Alternate Tax) was first introduced by Rajiv Gandhi in 1987 Budget

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