From pension for small traders to surcharge on income of Rs 2 crore: Highlights of Nirmala Sitharaman's first Budget

* From 1.85 trillion dollars in 2014, the economy has reached 2.7 trillion US dollars; we can very well reach 5 trillion dollars in the next few years: FM Sitharaman

* The Indian economy will grow to become a $3 trillion economy in the current year itself. It is now the sixth largest in the world. 5 years ago it was at the 11th position: Nirmala Sitharaman

* It took us over 55 years to reach $1 trillion dollar economy. But when the hearts are filled with hope, trust & aspiration, we in just 5 years, added $1 trillion: Nirmala Sitharaman

* Vision for the decade: From 1.85 trillion dollars in 2014, the economy has reached 2.7 trillion US dollars in five years; it is well within our capacity to reach 5 trillion dollars in the next few years

* 100 lakh crore rupees to be invested in infrastructure sector over next five years, Expert Committee to be set up to recommend structure and flow of funds through development finance institutions: FM

* Government envisions using rivers for cargo transportation, which will also decongest roads and railways: FM Sitharaman

* Comprehensive restructuring of National Highways Programme to be done, to ensure creation of National Highways Grid of desirable capacity: FM

* Schemes such as BharatMala, Sagarmala and UDAN are bridging rural urban divide and improving our transport infrastructure: Union Finance Minister Sitharaman 

* Credit Guarantee Enhancement Corporation will be set up in 2019-20, action plan to deepen markets for long-term bonds with specific focus on infra sector to be put in place: FM Sitharaman 

* The government has given a massive push to all forms of physical connectivity via :-

1. PMGSY
2.Industrial corridors
3. Dedicated freight corridors
4. Bharatmala
5. Sagarmala
6. Jal Marg vikas
7. UDAN schemes

* Railways to be encouraged to invest more in suburban railways through SPV structures such as Rapid Regional Transport System; more PPP initiatives to be encouraged in rail sector: FM Sitharaman 

* Railway infra would need an investment of 50 lakh crores between 2018 and 2030; PPP to be used to unleash faster development and delivery of passenger freight services: FM

* 657 km of metro rail network has become operational in the country: FM

* Rs 350 crore has been allocated for 2019-20 for 2 per cent interest subvention for all GST-registered MSMEs for fresh or on incremental loans under the interest subvention scheme for such enterprises: FM Sitharaman 

* We don't look down upon legitimate profit earning. Gone are the days of policy paralysis & license quota control regime. India Inc are India's job creators, nation's wealth creators. Together with mutual trust we can gain, catalyse past & attain sustained growth: Union Finance Minister Sitharaman 

* Payment platform for MSMEs to be created to enable filing of bills and facilitate timely payments: FM Sitharaman 

* Government payments to suppliers and contractors are a major source of cash flow especially to SMEs and MSMEs. Investment in MSMEs will receive a big boost if these delays in payments are eliminated: Sitharaman said. The government will create a payment platform for MSMEs to enable filing of bills and payment on the platform itself, Sitharaman said.

* Sitharaman also proposed to raise the annual turnover limit from Rs 250 crore to Rs 400 crore for availing a lower corporate tax rate of 25 per cent.

* The proposal would cover 99.3 per cent of the companies operating in the country, she said.

*The corporate tax rate is 30 per cent for companies with annual turnover of more tha Rs 250 crore at the moment. 

* Pension benefit to be extended to around 3 crore retail traders and shopkeepers with an annual turnover less than 1.5 crores under Pradhan Mantri Karam Yogi Man Dhan Scheme: Union Finance Minister Sitharaman 

* To provide NRIs seamless to Indian equities, NRI portfolio investment route to be merged with foreign portfolio investment route: FM

* Annual Global Investors' Meet to be organized in India, using NIIF as the anchor to get key sets of global players to come and invest in India: FM Sitharaman

* Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: User friendliness of trading platforms for corporate bonds will be reviewed, including issues arising out of capping of International Securities Identification Number

* Local sourcing norms for FDI to be eased for single-brand retailing sector: FM

* Further opening up of FDI in aviation, media, animation AVGC and insurance to be examined, in consultation with stakeholders; 100% FDI to be permitted for insurance intermediaries: FM Sitharaman

* Govt will invite suggestions for further opening up of FDI in aviation sector, media, animation AVGC and insurance sectors in consultation with all stakeholders. 100% FDI will be permitted for insurance intermediaries: FM Sitharaman

* Interoperability of RBI depositories and SEBI depositories necessary for seamlesss transfer of treasury bills; govt. will take necessary measures in this regard in consultation with RBI and SEBI: FM Sitharaman

* Electronic Fundraising Platform, a social stock exchange,  to be set up to list social enterprises and voluntary organizations working for social welfare objectives: FM Sitharaman 

* Existing Know Your Customer norms for Foreign Portfolio Investors to be rationalized and simplified, to make it more investor-friendly: FM  Sitharaman 

* Several reforms would be undertaken to promote rental housing, current rental laws are archaic as they do not address lessor-lessee relationships fairly: FM Sitharaman

* FM Sitharaman on FDI in single brand retail: Local sourcing norms for FDI to be eased for single-brand retailing sector.

* As I stated earlier, we have taken a slew of measures to ease burden on small and medium earners. Those having annual income up to Rs 5 lakhs are not required to pay any income tax. We are thankful to tax payers who play an important role in nation building

* Surcharge on individual taxpayers with taxable income between Rs 2 crore to 5 crore and above Rs 5 crore increased to 3% and 7% respectively: Nirmala Sitharaman

* PAN and Aadhaar to be made interchangeable for convenience of tax payers; Income Tax returns can now on be filed using Aadhaar number, if PAN card not available: FM

* To provide further impetus to affordable housing, additional deduction of 1.5 lakh rupees on interest paid on loans borrowed upto 31 Mar, 2020 for purchase of house up to 45 lakhs: FM

* Govt. has already GST Council to reduce tax rate  from 12% to 5%; additional income tax deduction of 1.5 lakh rupees on interest paid on loans taken to purhase electric vehicles: FM

* TDS of 2% on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs 1 crore a year from bank accounts

* Direct tax revenue increased to Rs 11.37 lakh crore in 2017-18: FM 

* Government keeps Gaon, Garib and Kisan at the centre of everything we do, of every programme: FM Sitharaman 

* FM Sitharaman: We'll invest widely in agricultural infrastructure. We'll support pvt entrepreneurship in driving value addition to farmers produce & those from allied activities too, like bamboo, timber & also for generating renewable energy. Ann daata ko kyun oorja daata bana nahi sakte?

* Need to replicate "Zero Budget Farming", to go back to basics, which will help doubling farmers income: FM Sitharaman 

* Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana - Phase 3 envisaged to upgrade 1.25 lakh km of road length at an estimated cost of 80,250 crore rupees: FM Sitharaman 

* All-weather road connectivity provided to more than 97% of eligible and feasible habitations, made possible by a high pace of road construction: FM 

* Robust fisheries management framework to be set up under Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sambada Yojana to address critical gaps in value chain: FM

* Time for completion of houses under PMAY reduced from 314 days in 2015-16 to 114 days in 2017-18, enabling the scale of achievement in PMAY: Sitharaman

* In second phase of PMAY-Gramin, 1.95 crore houses to be provided to eligible beneficiaries, during 2019-20 to 2021-22; they will have amenities such as LPG, electricity and toilets: FM Sitharaman

*  Under Pradhan Mantri Grameen Digital Saksharata Abhiyan, Bharat Net is targeting internet connectivity in local bodies in every panchayat in the country; this will be speeded under Universal Service Obligation Fund: FM 

* By 2022, every single rural family except those who are unwilling to take the connection, will have electricity and a clean cooking facility: FM Sitharaman 

* 9.6 crore toilets have been constructed since Oct 2, 2014. More than 5.6 lakh villages have become open defecation free. We have to build on this success. I propose to expand the Swachh Bharat mission to undertake sustainable sold waste management in every village: FM

* Jal Shakti Mantralaya will work with states to ensure "Har Ghar Jal" for all rural houses by 2024, under "Jal Jeevan Mission": FM Sitharaman 

* Union FM Nirmala Sitharaman on higher education: Today we have three institutions, 2 IIT's & IISC Bangalore in top 200 institutions of the world. An amount of 400 crores has been provided under the head 'World Class Institutions' for the year 2019-20.

* National Research Foundation to be set up to strengthen overall research ecosystem in the country; funds available under all Ministries to be integrated with NRF: FM Sitharaman 

* New National Educational Policy to be brought in to transform Indian educational system; major changes in higher as well as school system to be brought in: FM

* 400 crore rupees under head, World Class Institutions in 2019-20, more than 3 times the revised estimates of previous year; "Study In India" to be started to bring in foreign students into Indian higher education system: FM Sitharaman 

* To popularize sports at all levels, National Sports Education Board for development of sportspersons to be set up under "Khelo India: FM Sitharaman 

* "Standup India" will be continued for the entire period coinciding with the 15th Finance Commission, i.e. 2020 - 2025 : FM

* 80 Livelihood business incubators and 20 technology business incubators to be set up in 2019-20 under ASPIRE to develop 75,000 skilled entrepreneurs in agro-rural industries : FM

* Funds raised by startups will not require any scrutiny by income tax department: FM

* Exclusive TV programme exclusively for startups to be started, channel will be designed and executed by startups themselves: FM

* Regulation authority over housing finance sector to be returned from National Housing Bank to RBI: FM

* Govt has been following policy of disinvestment in non-financial public sector undertakings, maintaining govt's stake not to go below 51%.Govt is considering,in case where undertaking is still to be retained in govt control,to go below 51% to an apt level on case to case basis: FM

* For purchase of high-rated pooled assets of financially sound Non Banking Finance Companies amounting to 1 lakh crore rupees during 2019-20, one-time six-month partial credit guarantee to be given to PSBs: FM

* Public sector banks to be provided 70,000 crore rupees to boost capital and improve credit. Public sector banks will use technology, enabling customer of one PSB to access service across all PSBs as well: FM

* Indian Developmental Assistance Scheme to be revamped during current financial year: FM Sitharaman 

* Non-performing asset(NPAs) recovery of Rs 4 lakh crore over the last four years, NPAs down by Rs 1 lakh crore in the last one year

* Proposals for strengthening regulatory authority of RBI over NBFCs have been made: FM

* The fiscal deficit this year is 3.3%, brought down from 3.4%: FM Sitharaman

* I propose to increase special additional excise duty and road and infrastructure cess each one by 1 rupee a litre on petrol and diesel: FM 

* A new series of coins of Re 1, Rs 2, Rs 5, Rs 10, Rs 20 easily identifiable to the visually impaired were released by the PM on 7th March 2019. These coins will be made available for public use shortly: FM 

* Net owned fund requirements to be reduced from 5000 crore to 1000 crore rupees, to facilitate onshoring of international insurance transactions and enable opening of branches by foreign reinsurers: FM

* 4 new embassies to be opened in 2019-20, to improve footprint of India's overseas presence and to provide better public services to local Indian communities: FM Sitharaman 

* Mission for integrating traditional artisans and their creative products with global markets to be launched; patents and Geographical Indications to be obtained for them where necessary: FM

* Govt is setting a target of Rs 1.05 L crore for disinvestment in FY20, says FM Sitharaman

* One woman in every SHG shall be made eligible for a loan of 1 lakh rupees under MUDRA scheme: FM

* Every verified woman SHG member having a Jan Dhan account, an overdraft of 5000 rupees will be allowed: FM

* I propose to consider issuing Aadhaar Card for Non Resident Indians (NRIs) with Indian passports after their arrival in India without waiting for the mandatory 180 days: FM Sitharaman

* To further encourage women entrepreneurship, Women SHG Interest Subvention Programme to be expanded to all districts in India: FM

* Multiple labour laws to be streamlined to into a set of four Labour Codes, to standardize registration and filing of returns and reduce disputes: FM

* Sitharaman: I draw attention to the women of India, 'Naari tu Narayaani'. This Government believes that we can progress, with greater women participation

* To mark this occasion, Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra to be inaugurated at Raj Ghat, on 2nd October, 2019; Gandhipedia too to be developed to spread positive Gandhian values: FM

* Happy and satisfied to report that India will be made Open Defecation Free on October 2nd, 2019, as per the dream of PM Narendra Modi: FM Sitharaman 

* Swachh Bharat to be expanded to undertake sustainable solid waste management in every village, harnessing latest tech: FM

* To harness India's space ability commercially, a public sector enterprise, New Space India Limited (NSIL) has been incorporated to tap the benefits of ISRO: FM Sitharaman 

* India has emerged as a major space power. Time has come to harness our ability commercially: Sitharaman 

* Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman: It's right time to consider increasing minimum public shareholding in the listed companies, I have asked SEBI to consider raising the current threshold of 25% to 35%

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday proposed increasing customs duty on CCTV camera, IP camera, digital video recorder and network video recorder to 20 per cent from 15 per cent, in order to provide the domestic industry a level playing field. 

Besides, the government has proposed hiking basic customs duty (BCD) on optical fibres, optical fibre bundles and cables to 15 per cent from 10 per cent.

The proposals were announced in the Union Budget 2019-20 presented by Sitharaman in Lok Sabha.

While Customs duty is imposed on certain electronic goods, now being manufactured in India to promote domestic industry, custom duty, on the other hand, is removed on certain other capital goods required for manufacture of specified electronic goods.

To encourage the export of sports goods, certain items to a certain limit, like foam and pinewood are included in the list of items allowed for duty free import. Similarly, “Export duty is being rationalised on raw and semi-finished leather to provide relief to this sector,‟ the Minister said.

“Defence has an immediate requirement of modernisation and upgradation. This is national priority. For this purpose, import of defence equipment that are not being manufactured in India are being exempted from the basic customs duty,” Sitharaman said. 

List of items getting costlier

 Cashew kernels
 Fatty acids. Acid oils from refining used in manufacture of oleochemicals and soaps
 Poly Vinyl Chloride
 Floor cover of plastics, Wall or ceiling coverings of plastics
 Articles of plastic
 Butyl Rubber
 Chlorobutyl rubber or bromobutyl rubber
 Paper for newsprint and magazines
 Printed books (including covers for printed books) and printed manuals
 Water blocking tapes for manufacture of optical fiber cables
 Ceramic roofing tiles and ceramic flags and pavings, hearth or wall tiles etc.
 Stainless steel products
 Wire of other alloy steel (other than INVAR)
 Base metal fittings, mountings and similar articles suitable for furniture, doors, staircases, windows, blinds, hinge for automobiles
 Indoor and outdoor unit of split –system air conditioner
 Stone crushing (cone type) plants for the construction of roads
 Charger/ power adapter of CCTV camera/ IP camera and DVR / NVR
 Loudspeaker
 Digital Video Recorder (DVR) and Network Video Recorder (NVR)
 CCTV camera and IP camera
 Optical Fibres, optical fibre bundles and cables
 Friction material and articles thereof (for example, sheets, rolls, strips, segments, discs, washers, pads), not mounted, for brakes, for clutches or the like, with a basis of asbestos, of other mineral substances or of cellulose, whether or not combined with textile or other materials.
 Glass mirrors, whether or not framed, including rear-view mirrors
 Locks of a kind used in motor vehicles
 Catalytic Converter
 Oil or petrol filters for internal combustion engines
 Intake air filters for internal combustion engines
 Lighting or visual signaling equipment of a kind used in bicycles or motor vehicles
 Horns for vehicle
 Other visual or sound signalling equipment for bicycle and motor vehicle
 Parts of visual or sound signaling equipment, windscreen wipers, defrosters and demisters of a kind used in cycles or motor vehicles
 Windscreen wipers, defrosters and demisters, Sealed beam lamp units, Other lamps for automobiles.
 Completely Built Unit (CBU)of vehiclesfalling under heading 8702, 8704
 Chassis fitted with engines, for the motor vehicles of headings 8701 to 8705
 Bodies (including cabs), for the motor vehicles of headings 8701 to 8705

Similarly, to support domestic industry, Customs Duty has been proposed to be reduced on certain raw materials and capital goods as follows:
 Naphtha
 Methyloxirane (Propylene Oxide)
 Ethylene dichloride (EDC)
 Raw materials used in manufacture of Preform of Silica: -
a) Silicon Tetra Chloride
b) Germanium Tetra Chloride
c) Refrigerated Helium Liquid
d) Silica Rods
e) Silica Tubes
 Wool fibre, Wool Tops
 Inputs for the manufacture of CRGO steel: -
a) MgO coated cold rolled steel coils
b) Hot rolled coils
c) Cold-rolled MgO coated and annealed steel
d) Hot rolled annealed and pickled coils
e) Cold rolled full hard
 Amorphous alloy ribbon
 Cobalt mattes and other intermediate products of cobalt metallurgy
 Capital goods used for manufacturing of following electronic items, namelya) Populated PCBA
b) Camera module of cellular mobile phones
c) Charger/Adapter of cellular mobile phone
d) Lithium Ion Cell
e) Display Module
f) Set Top Box
g) Compact Camera Module