budget

Budget 2018
Union Budget 2018 offered a slew of goodies such as re-introduction of standard deduction to the tune of Rs. 40,000 and the hike of exemption under the head of medical reimbursement for senior citizens.Like every budget, this year's budget, too, has a bagful of surprises. Some news surely brought smiles on your faces, while the others might have drawn blank faces. The rollout of budget on February 1 didn't turn out good for the stock exchanges as Sensex lost 840 points on Friday, however the Budget 2018, undoubtedly, offered a slew of goodies such as re-introduction of standard deduction to the tune of Rs. 40,000 and the hike of exemption under the head of medical reimbursement for senior citizens. A mega health insurance policy that is proposed to offer cashless benefit of Rs. 5 lakh to nearly 10 crore families, is set to revolutionise India's healthcare system.
Ten Gifts PM Modi Offers In Budget 2018-19

1. The Budget 2018 announced on February 1 by Arun Jaitley allows standard deduction of Rs. 40,000 for the salaried individuals. But what you have to forego is the travel and medical expenditure that were earlier allowed to be deducted to arrive at the taxable income. This, however, will certainly reduce your taxable income, reducing your payable income tax further.

2. A mega health scheme is likely to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families. Each of the families will stand to receive (not in hand) Rs. five lakh for secondary and tertiary care. One might argue that the treatment at government hospitals is already free and there are primary healthcare facilities that offer almost free treatment. However, the new scheme will cover tertiary care such as liver, heart related ailments. Also, the policy might offload some of the burden of government hospitals since the scheme would be extended to the private hospitals in the same way as the private health insurance schemes do. "National Health Protection Scheme to cover over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families (approximately 50 crore beneficiaries) providing coverage upto 5 lakh rupees per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization," reads the government statement.

3. To make the country digitally enabled, the finance minister announced to further broadband access in villages. The government proposed to set up five lakh wi-fi hotspots to provide net connectivity to five crore rural citizens. This is one of the steps to fulfill the dream of Digital India.

4. The government will work out a scheme to assign every individual enterprise in India a unique ID, on the lines of aadhaar. This is likely to streamline the taxation and licensing-relating issues. The harassment at the hands of law enforcement agencies is expected to come down when the businessperson is officially separated from the business unit s/he runs.

In such a scenario, the organization will become a legitimate entity in the eyes of law irrespective of the scale or nature of organsation. The way government has ensure to transfer the benefits and subsidies directly to the accounts of beneficiaries via aadhaar, reducing pilferage, similarly the benefits and tax-related benefits can be transferred to the organization via the unique code, subject to the efficient implementation of the scheme.

5. The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that 2017-18 disinvestment target of Rs.72,500 crore has been exceeded and expected receipts of Rs.1,00,000 crore. He set disinvestment target of Rs.80,000 crore for 2018-19. Because of this, the government will be able to ensure fiscal consolidation and avoid surpassing the 3.3% target of fiscal deficit set for the next year, 2018-19.

6. Arun Jaitley also said that there has been a huge spike in the number of income tax returns filed by the tax payers. The number of Effective Tax Payers has increased from 6.47 crore at the beginning of 2014-15 to 8.27 crore at the end of last financial year which is 2016-17. This again would curtail the need to borrow money from open markets in form of bonds or through other means. The higher is the number of tax payers, the better is the fiscal discipline, strengthening the value of currency and curbing the inflation.

7. Senior citizens get a bounty in form of increase in exemption of interest income on deposits with banks and post offices. The government has proposed to increase the amount from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 50,000.

8. Another dose of sops for the senior citizens entails rise in deduction limit for health insurance premium and medical expenditure from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000 under section 80D of the Income Tax Act, 1961. This would leave little taxable income for the senior citizens. The higher exemption has been introduced to keep pace with the soaring medical expenses.

9. In case of certain critical illnesses, the senior citizens are allowed Rs. 60,000 exemption, while for the very senior citizens, the limit is Rs. 80,000. Both the upper limits have been hiked to Rs. 1,00,000, thus leaving higher income in the hands of senior citizens.

10. Several initiatives are planned to spruce up rural infrastructure. Added infrastructure doesn't translate to better economy in the short run and may not reflect in higher income or lower taxable income and so on and so forth, however, better infrastructure created employment opportunities and better logistics in and around the areas that are endowed with better infrastructure. In the long run, the improved infrastructure in rural areas is likely to work as counter magnetic to urbanization. In the 2018-19 Budget, Arun Jaitley declared that the government plans to build 17 lakh kilometers of rural roads, 51 lakh new rural houses, 1.88 crore toilets, and provide 1.75 crore new household electric connections besides boosting agricultural growth.