Union Budget for 2018-19 (April-March),

Highlights of the Union Budget for 2018-19 (April-March), presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament today:

MACROECONOMY MATTERS
✧ Govt has implemented fundamental structural reforms
✧ India stands out as the fastest growing economy in world
✧  Promised to reduce poverty, build strong India
✧  Direct transfer mechanism is a global success story
✧  Will focus on health, infrastructure, senior citizens
✧  Focus on 'ease of living' for common man
✧  To move ahead on ease-of-doing business
✧  This Budget to consolidate gains of last 4 years' budgets
✧  Demonetization has reduced cash in circulation
✧  Recapitalized banks have better capacity to support growth
✧  Indirect tax system made simpler with GST
✧  FDI increased due to govt actions
✧  Manufacturing sector back on growth path
✧  There's a premium on honesty because of govt's reforms
✧  Firmly on course to achieve 8% plus growth
✧  India to become fifth largest economy very soon
✧  India a $2.5-trln economy now
✧  Achieved average 7.5% growth in first 3 years of govt

AGRICULTURE
✧  FY19 Budget aims to strengthen agri , rural economy
✧  Seek paradigm shift to double farmers' income by 2022
✧  Govt committed to welfare of farmers
✧  Govt to create mechanism for post harvest facilities
✧  MSP hikes not enough, farmers must be able to get benefits
✧  Next kharif crop MSP to be at least 1.5 times of cost
✧  Emphasis on generating gainful farm, non-farm jobs
✧  Focus on low-cost farming, higher selling price
✧  Institutional system for farm goods price, demand forecast
✧  NITI Aayog to make robust system for fair price to farmers
✧  Export of farm commodities to be liberalized
✧  Agri export potential $100bln 
✧  To launch Operation Green in line with Operation Flood
✧  Allocate 5 bln rupees for Operation Green
✧  Allocation for food processing sector 14 blnrupees FY19
✧  Allocate 2 bln rupees for medicinal, aromatic crops
✧  To encourage women self-help groups for organic farming
✧  Cluster-based models to be developed for horticulture crops
✧  e-NAM to be exempt from APMC regulations
✧  To develop, upgrade 22,000 rural haats to agricultural mkts 
✧  To allocate 20 bln rupees for farm development fund
✧  Favorable tax treatment for farm mfg organizations
✧  Agri credit target at 11 trlnrupees for FY19
✧  Kisan credit card benefit also to animal husbandry, fishing
✧  To launch bamboo mission for 12.9 bln rupees
✧  470 APMCs connected to e-NAM, rest to be connected by Mar
✧  To set up 42 mega food parks for farm exports

FY18 REVISED
✧  Hope to grow 7.2-7.5% in H2 FY18
✧  Exports expected to grow 15% in FY18

POLICY STEPS
✧  100 bln rupees for animal husbandry, fisheries develop fund
✧  To set up 2 new funds of total 100 bln rupees for fishery
✧  Online loan facility for MSMEs to be revamped
✧  To address bad loan problems of MSMEs
✧  37.94 bln rupees for MSME credit support
✧  Job creation core of policy planning
✧  To take steps for improving start-up funding environment
✧  PSUs to be part of e-trade receivables platform
✧  To link e-trade receivables platform with GSTN
✧  To review refinancing policies under MUDRA plan
✧  To give 40 mln power connections under Saubhagya Yojana
✧  3 trln rupees lending target for MUDRA plan FY19
✧  Smart City scheme outlay 2.04 trln rupees

SOCIAL SECTOR
✧  To set up dedicated affordable housing fund under NHB
✧  Aim 5.1 mln rural houses under affordable housing plan
✧  Aim to give houses to all poor by 2022
✧  Aim to build 20 mln more toilets under Swachh Bharat
✧  More than 60 mln toilets built under Swachh Bharat plan
✧  To give 80 mln LPG connections under Ujjwala scheme
✧  To spend 1 trln rupees on education infra over 4 years
✧  To subsidies removal of crop residue to tackle pollution
✧  To set up Ekalavya schools for scheduled tribes
✧  To treat education holistically pre-nursery to class 12
✧  To move from blackboard to digital board
✧  Allocate 99.75 bln rupees for social security plan FY19
✧  Allocation to Natl Livelihood Mission 57.50 bln rupees
✧  Allocate 14.3 trln rupees for rural infra FY19
✧  Allocate 26 bln rupees under ground water irrigation plan
✧  Health protection scheme to cover 100 mln poor families
✧  Allocate 12 bln rupees for health wellness centres
✧  To launch PM research fellow plan for 1,000 BTech students
✧  To set up 2 new schools of planning & architecture
✧  600 mln Jan Dhan accts to get micro insurance benefit
✧  24 new medical colleges to be set up via hospital upgrade
✧  Aim 1 medical college for every 3 Parliament constituency
✧  6-bln -rupee nutritional support for Tuberculosis patients
✧  Govt progressing towards universal health coverage
✧  Health scheme to have 500,000 rupee/family/yr benefit
✧  Allocate 566.2 bln rupees for Scheduled Castes welfare
✧  Cover all poor family in PM insurance plan in mission mode
✧  187 projects sanctioned under Ganga cleaning program
✧  Allocate 391.35 bln rupees for welfare of Scheduled Tribes
✧  Govt women employees to contribute 8% to EPF in first 3 yrs

MISCELLANEOUS
✧  Special scheme to fight pollution in Delhi-NCR
✧  To develop 10 places as iconic tourism destinations
✧  To construct tunnel under Sela Pass

INDUSTRY, INFRASTRUCTURE
✧  To allocate 71.5 bln rupees to textiles sector FY19