A farmer carries a water pump to irrigate his vegetable field in Kolkata. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented his fourth budget today, with increased allocation for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and an increased target for agriculture credit.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented a budget that appeared to be a salve for the tribulations of demonetisation: He hiked outlays for the world's largest employment generation scheme, increased the target for agriculture credit in an attempt to reduce poverty in rural India and offered tax benefits to small and medium enterprises and salaried Indians.
Jaitley also began the process of reforms in political party funding–something Prime Minister Narendra Modi alluded to in his December 31, 2016 speech. Under the proposed reform, anonymous cash donations to political parties has been capped at Rs 2,000, down 90% from the existing Rs 20,000.
"The budget is a step for strengthening the economy, improving farmers income and bettering the quality of life of citizens," Modi said immediately after the Budget speech
The government reduced the personal income tax rate for the slab of Rs 2.5-5 lakh from 10% to 5%, with an additional rebate of Rs 2,500 for those with income below Rs 350,000. The FM has also announced a benefit of Rs 12,500 for individual taxpayers who earn more than Rs 5 lakh per annum.
In effect, an individual with income of Rs 300,000 will not have to pay any income tax, and an individual with an income of Rs 450,000, who declares deductions under existing income tax laws–such as savings, rent, asset repayment, etc–of Rs 150,000 will also not have to pay any income tax.
Corporate tax rate for small companies with turnover less than Rs 50 crore has been reduced from 30% to 25%. About 96% of India's companies will benefit from this step, the finance minister said.
A consecutive rural focussed budget
The allocation for rural, agriculture and allied sectors in 2017-18 is Rs 1,87,223 crore–24% higher than the previous year, Jaitley said.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which assures 100 days of employment for job seekers per year, has seen an increased outlay of Rs 48,000 crore–the highest ever–in 2017-18 from Rs 38,500 crore allocated in 2016-17, up 25%. If we take into account Rs 9,000 crore added as supplementary grants towards MGNREGA during 2016-17, the rise in funding is just 1%.
The Antyodaya Yojana has been set a target of getting 10 million rural households out of poverty and making 50,000 gram panchayats poverty-free by 2019.
Agricultural credit target has been increased to Rs 10 lakh crore for the next financial year, in a move to meet the government's commitment of doubling farmers income in five years.
The FM also spoke about the benefits of demonetisation, and added that impact on the economy would be transient, and the gross domestic product (GDP) would be bigger, cleaner and real in the coming years.
Jaitley also listed out some details about bank deposits post-demonetisation: Over 10 million accounts saw deposits between Rs 200,000 and Rs 80 lakh (with an average deposit of Rs 503,000) and about 148,000 accounts saw deposits above Rs 80 lakh with average deposit of Rs 3.3 crore.
Presenting the first combined budget (including Railways Budget) since 1924, the Finance Minister has allocated Rs 55,000 crore from the budget for capital expenditure on railways, of a projected expenditure of Rs 1.31 lakh crore.
While the total expenditure for 2017-18 has been budgeted at Rs 21,47,0000 crore, capital expenditure would be increased by 25%, Jaitley said. The Centre will transfer Rs 4.1 lakh crore to states and union territories.
The government is also expected to borrow less at Rs 3.48 lakh crore as against Rs 4.25 lakh crore last year.
Our tweets, storified:
Stand-Up India has benefited 11,892 women, 2,536 SC & 704 ST entrepreneurs: http://164.100.47.190/loksabhaquestions/annex/10/AU4317.pdf https://t.co/ZerzqroAQb
— Fact Check India (@FactCheckIndia) February 1, 2017
Moving from informal to formal economy; war against black money launched: #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Foreign Direct Investment increased to Rs 1.45 lakh crore in the first half of 2016017, up 36% #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
India 6th largest manufacturing economy in the world, up from 9th. #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
#Notebandi to create new normal, clean economy #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Demonetisation changes retrograde status quo. Only transient impact on the economy #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
The effects of #DeMonetisation are not expected to spill over to next year #budget 2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
GDP growth in 2017-18 is projected at 6.75-7.5% post-demonetisation: #EconomicSurvey https://t.co/vtCUyi0Kbg pic.twitter.com/Dnu5SbdOKp
— Fact Check India (@FactCheckIndia) February 1, 2017
Agriculture credit target hiked to Rs 10 lakh crore #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
.@Arunjaitley's Approach: Spend more in rural areas and infrastructure, yet uphold fiscal prudence #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Big change in agriculture policy: Model law on contract farming to be prepared and circulated to states for adoption #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Mission Antyodaya to bring 1 crore households out of poverty, 50k GPs poverty-free by 2019 #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
MNREGA outlay increased to Rs 48,000 crore, up from Rs 38,000 crore last year #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Micro irrigation fund, for village level water provisions for farming to be set up by NABARD. Initial corpus Rs 5,000 crore. #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
.@arunjaitley on rural spending. #Budget2017 pic.twitter.com/7m54vl6Lm1
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
#Budget2017 promises modernising #education pic.twitter.com/6GZlQ32vSU
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
2016 @asercentre report found 46.1% of grade I rural children couldn't read letters;39.9% couldn't recognise nos 1-9 https://t.co/PY9lHDBbkR pic.twitter.com/2PmBYiQgNr
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
#Budget2017 pic.twitter.com/KmerYMknAe
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
In 2014, 480,000 estimated to have died of #tuberculosis in India; 2.8 million new TB cases in 2015. Our story: https://t.co/Uabmxt6wvm pic.twitter.com/MGXk9uKSS8
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
2017-18 capital outlay for railways at Rs 1,31,000 crore #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
5th pillar of #Budget2017, Infrastructure, to synergise railways, roadways, waterways and civil aviation together
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
#Railways in #Budget2017 pic.twitter.com/GGiycNRQq7
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
#Railways in #Budget2017 pic.twitter.com/BCPJJiRUFu
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Roads: National Highways to be financed with Rs 64000 in 2017-18, against Rs 57,676 crore (2016-17): #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
To connect 150,000 village panchayats with internet, Rs 10,000 crore to be spent on BharatNet #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
New crude oil reserves in Odisha and Rajasthan to improve domestic availability of petroleum products #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Record spending on infrastructure, including railways, at Rs 3.96 lakh crore: #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Government changes Kala Azar elimination target for the third time to 2017. First target-2010, second target-2015 #Budget2017 @arunjaitley pic.twitter.com/RRRHtFyUJL
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
2943 #KalaAzar cases in 2016 down by 78% from 2013. http://164.100.47.190/loksabhaquestions/annex/9/AS183.pdf #Budget2017 pic.twitter.com/tPG8FU2ChO
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
1,25,785 new #leprosy cases in 2014-15, new case detection rate 9.73 per 100,000. NLEP Progress Report: 2014-15: https://t.co/jf0fcRNoX4 pic.twitter.com/DPQAk375VK
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Taking agriculture marketing reforms further, expert committee on agriculture commodities markets to be set up #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Stressed balance sheets of PSU banks to get Rs 10,000 crore for recapitalisation. #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
26% of habitations electrified have 100% electrification https://t.co/gu8A2dPQ18 @arunjaitley @MinOfPower #Budget2017 pic.twitter.com/MViSXlgSUt
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Lending to Micro-Industry-MUDRA scheme-doubled to Rs 2.44 lakh cr in 2017-18 #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
1.25 crore Indians have installed govt's #BHIMApp for #UPI payments #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
New law to confiscate assets of big-time offenders, including economic offenders, fleeing the country #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Total expenditure for 2017-18 would be Rs 21.47 lakh crore; capital expenditure to increase by 24% #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Capital Expenditure up by 24%, resources transferred to states and UTs Rs 4.11 lakh crore in #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Until Mar 2016, there were 12.6 internet subscribers per 100 people in rural India; 58.28 in urban areas. Our story https://t.co/x6YbXHhkpe pic.twitter.com/vJPJVs2bFi
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
More than 1 crore accounts make deposits between 2 lakh to 80 lakh (average deposit Rs 5 lakh) post #NoteBandi
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
About 150,000 bank A/Cs deposited more than Rs 80 lakh after #NoteBandi, average deposit Rs 3.3 crore
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Income tax for MSMEs with annual income < 50 crore, reduced to 25% from 30%; 96% companies to benefit #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
— Fact Check India (@FactCheckIndia) February 1, 2017
EC reform proposed: Maximum cash donation a political party can receive from one source now Rs 2,000, down from 20,000 #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Personal #incometax on first slab; ₹ 2.5 lakh to ₹ 5 lakh-halved, from 10% to 5%. For higher slabs a rebate of ₹ 12,500 #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
#Budget2017:1.5 lakh health sub-centres to be transformed to Health Wellness Centres, only 5% increase in no. of sub-centres bet 2005 & 2015 pic.twitter.com/Peonq3Xpvv
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Where the money for India's #Budget2017 will come from: pic.twitter.com/HpGaAF8NEI
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
#Budget2017: Expenditure: 21.47 lakh crore; 18% on interest payments, 10% on subsidies, 9% on defence pic.twitter.com/ZPk0eX7CpQ
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
Of the 2.72 lakh crore earmarked for subsidies, 53% is for food, 9% for petroleum, 26% for fertiliser #Budget2017
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
MGNREGA allocation highest in 2017-2018, but only 1.05% more than revised 2016-2017 budget estimates. pic.twitter.com/gLLdjnfwLj
— Fact Check India (@FactCheckIndia) February 1, 2017
Edn budget 10% > 2016-17;15.5% increase in higher ed,school ed budget 6.4%. Our analysis suggested focus on schools: https://t.co/f6VQvvHImu pic.twitter.com/5GHBj159Ni
— IndiaSpend (@IndiaSpend) February 1, 2017
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