Arun Jaitley defends contentious parts of the Union Budget 2018.
Union Finance Minister addressed a press-conference post his budget speech. These are some of the main points outlined by Arun Jaitley
1.Budget blends fiscal prudence with requirement of consonancy
2. Key objective was to help agriculture and rural sector
3. Second objective was to help people who are financially disadvantaged. Jaitley cites schemes like Ujjwala and Health Insurance scheme among others as steps taken to help the poor.
4. Regarding taxation, Jaitley says they have helped three major classes. Relaxation for business class, standard deduction for salaried class and relief for the pensioners.
5. Jaitley says social security net has to be created and resources have to be available for that. The 1% extra surcharge is for that purpose.
6. Jaitley defends taxation on LTCG saying money is needed to fund the major schemes. He says only gain in capital from February 1 that will be liable for LTCG tax.
7. The budget proposes an institutional mechanism to fix the emoluments of the elected members, thereby addressing the criticism that they fix their own salaries, says Arun Jaitley.
8. Step by step, in every budget, I have been putting surplus money in the hands of the middle-class taxpayer: Arun Jaitley
9. Jaitley says he is confident that government will meet fiscal deficit target for 2018-19
10. Jaitley says first time salaried class as a whole and its contribution as taxpayers have been singled out and their contribution has been recognised and standard deduction has been given. Jaitley says additional avenues of investment given for senior citizens. Jaitley says MSME will pay 5% less tax from now .
11. NITI Aayog will devise a mechanism to increase the Minimum Support Price for crops to 1.5 times of production cost, as promised in Budget; it will be done in consultation with the state
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 "Arun Jaitley addressing presser")
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