Budget Highlights

Following are the highlights of the Union Budget 2015-16 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament today:

* No change in personal Income Tax
* Health Insurance Premium deduction hiked from Rs 15,000
to Rs 25,000; for senior citizens to Rs 30,000
* Transport allowance exemption hiked to Rs 1,600, from Rs
800 per month
* Additional 2% surcharge on people earning over Rs 1 cr;
to fetch Rs 9,000 cr
* Wealth tax abolished
* Direct Taxes Code (DTC) dropped
* Rs 50,000 deduction for contribution to New Pension
Scheme
* To lower Corporate Tax to 25% over next four years
* GAAR implementation deferred by 2 years to April 2017
* Service Tax rate hiked to 14%, from 12.36%
* Tax free bonds for roads, railways, irrigation projects
* 2015-16 growth between 8-8.5%, double digit growth
feasible
* Retail inflation close to 5% by March, room for monetary
policy easing
* To achieve fiscal deficit of 3% of GDP by 2017-18
* Fiscal Deficit target 3.9% in 2015-16, 3.5% in 2016-17
* Revenue Deficit to be 2.8% in 2015-16
* Current Account Deficit for 2014-15 to be below 1.3% of
GDP
* To introduce comprehensive law to deal with black money
* Benami property transaction bill to tackle black money
transaction in real estate soon
* 100% deduction for contribution to Swachh Bharat, Clean
Ganga projects
* GST to be put in place by April 1, 2016
* Internationally competitive direct tax regime to be put
in place to incentivise saving
* Incentivise use of credit, debit cards; disincentivise
cash transaction to curb black money.
* 7 pc surcharge on firm earning Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 cr
* Disinvestment target pegged at Rs 69,500 cr
* Net borrowings pegged at Rs 4.56 lakh cr
* AIIMS to be set up in J&K, Punjab, Assam, Tamil Nadu and
Himachal Pradesh
* Indian Gold Coin with Ashok Chakra, Gold Bond, gold
monetisation scheme proposed to check gold import
* Forward Markets Commission to be merged with SEBI
* PPP model in infrastructure to be revised and revitalised
* MGNREGA allocation hiked by Rs 5,000 cr
* Nirbhaya Fund allocation hiked by Rs 1,000 crore
* 5 Ultra Mega power projects to be set up at Rs 1 lakh cr
* To create world class IT hub; Rs 150 cr
* States to be equal partners in economic growth:
* To bring a new bankruptcy code in 2015-16
* Committed to subsidy rationalisation by cutting leakages
* National Skill Mission to be launched, to develop
employability of youth
* Rural infra development fund to have Rs 25,000 cr corpus
* Visa on arrival scheme to be expanded to 150 countries
* PSU ports to be encouraged to become companies
* Non Plan expenditure at Rs 13.12 lakh cr, Plan
expenditure at Rs 4.65 lakh cr
* Gross tax mop up at Rs 14.49 lakh cr
* Direct tax proposals will lead to a loss of Rs 8,315 cr;
indirect tax proposal gain will be over Rs 23,000 cr
* Tax payers to get income tax benefit of Rs 4.44 lakh
* To introduce 2 pc Swachh Bharat cess on Service Tax
* Customs duty on OLED TV abolished
* Excise duty on leather shoes costing Rs 1,000 lowered to
6 pc from 12 pc
* New tax proposals to bring revenue gain of Rs 15,068 cr
* 50 lakh toilet built under Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, 6 crore
toilet targeted.