Know about Budget 2017

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2017-18 in the Lok Sabha. Here are the highlights of the Union Budget.

If you are a Salaried Employee – Government will slash the basic rate of income tax from 10 percent to five percent. The basic rate applies to those with annual incomes of between Rs. 250,000 rupees and Rs 500,000 rupees.

If you are into farming – Farm sector will grow at 4.1% this fiscal and government will double income of farmers in five years. For imparting new skills to people in rural areas, mason training will be provided to five lakh persons by 2022. Farm credit budget for next fiscal is at Rs 10 Lakh cr. Fasal Bima Yojana increased to 40% of crop area, raised to Rs 1.41 lakh cr. in Kharif 2017 season. Infrastructure investment pegged at Rs 3.96 lakh cr. Dairy processing fund with Rs 2000cr corpus to be set up and to double irrigation fund corpus to Rs 40,000 cr.

If you are a business person – Scope of domestic transfer pricing restricted to only if one of the entities involved in related party transaction enjoys specified profit linked deduction. Threshold limit for audit of business entities that opt for presumptive income scheme increased from Rs 1 cr. to Rs 2 cr. Similarly, the threshold for maintenance of books for individuals and HUF increased from turnover of Rs 10 lakhs to Rs 25 lakhs or income from Rs 1.2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh.

If you live in Rural India - The government aims to bring 1 cr. households out of poverty by 2019. They will take steps to ensure participation of women in MGNREGA up to 55%. For imparting new skills to people in rural areas, mason training will be provided to five lakh persons by 2022. The government proposes to complete 1 cr. houses for those without homes. Government will allocate Rs 19,000 cr. for Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana in 2017-18. The country is set to achieve 100% rural electrification by March 2018. With a progress of Swachh Bharat mission, sanitation coverage has gone up from 42% in Oct 13 to 60% now.

If you are into Real Estate – Finance minister has granted infrastructure status to affordable housing, a long-time demand from the industry. Owing to surplus liquidity, banks have started reducing lending rates for housing.

If you own a start-up – The three year tax holiday available to start-ups has been extended from the existing period of first 5 years of operation to 7 years. Removal of embargo on carry forward of losses if there’s a change in share-holding beyond 51% of promoter share.

If you are a student – Government has proposed to introduce a system of measuring annual learning. Science to be given focus, Quality Education will energize our youth. Skill centres will be set up across the country to help youth seeking opportunities outside the country.