Key Highlights Of Jaitley's Budget

Dashing the hopes of those who expected the finance minister to narrate a populist Budget this year with eyes on the approaching General elections, Arun Jaitley on February 1 delivered a Speech that had prudence written all over it.

Let us look at the key highlights of his Budget Speech:

Agriculture: To enhance connectivity in rural areas, the FM allocated Rs 2 billion. Operation Green, along lines of Operation Flood, with a corpus Rs 500 crore has been set to boost agricultural production. 

Air pollution: There will be schemes to address air pollution and support efforts in the national capital region and states such as Haryana, Punjab, UP and Delhi. Removal of crop residue will be subsidised to tackle pollution problems. 

Affordable housing: A dedicated affordable housing fund under the National Housing Bank will be put in place to facilitate the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana mission. Around one crore houses will be constructed in the rural areas.

Real estate: To ease the burden faced in realty deals, a deviation of five per cent from circle rates to prevailing market rate has been set. No adjustments will be made in case circle rate does not exceed five per cent of sale consideration.

Swachh Bharat Mission: With six crore toilets already built under the initiative, the government has proposed to build two crore new toilets in the next financial year. 

Job creation: Around 70 lakh formal jobs will be created through new employment policy.

Livelihood: Amount of Rs 16,000 crore will be spent on providing electricity connection to four crore households in low-income groups. Mega schemes will be launched to free gas connections to below-poverty-line families and eight crore women under the Ujjwala Scheme. There will be a substantial increase of fund allocation to Rs 5,750 crore in next fiscal under the National Livelihood Mission.

Smart cities: A total of 99 cities have been selected to be developed as smart ones, at an expenditure of Rs 2.04 lakh crore. Also, 115 "aspirational districts" will be identified as model districts of development. 

Medicare: The Finance Minister announced a new Flagship National Health Protection Scheme which will provide health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per family every year to 50 crore beneficiaries.

Infrastructure building

*National highways, exceeding 9,000 kilometre in length to be completed in 2018-19. 

*There are plans to boost the Mumbai and Bengaluru Suburban railway networks. 

*The Centre will provide connectivity to 56 un-served airports and 31 un-served helipads under the UDAN Scheme. Capacity of airports will be enhanced by five times to provide one billion trips a year. 

*Railway stations will be revamped with new facilities such as Wifi, CCTVs, etc. Stations with 25,000-plus footfall will have escalators. 

Tax talk

Benefits for the salaried class: There will be a standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for salaried employees for transport and medical reimbursements. There are no changes in the personal income tax rates applicable to individuals.

Enterprises: The government will monetise select central public-sector enterprises using the Infrastructure Investment Trusts.

Senior citizens: There will be exemption of interest income on bank deposits up to Rs 50,000. 

Education cess: The rate of education cess has been revised to four per cent.