The Union Budget 2017 is being appreciated for providing a tax relief for citizens, including measures to bring transparency in political funding and trying to promote a digital economy.

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While the market reacted positively to the Budget by gaining more than 400 points on Wednesday, the Opposition has voiced its criticism by calling it a ‘damp squib’, saying it did not adequately address the crisis in the economy due to demonetization. 

Here’s a look at some of the distinctive aspects of the Union Budget 2017:

A combined Union and Rail budget

The 92-year-old legacy of presenting a separate Rail and Union budget was done away with this year, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announcing the first combined budget of India. FM Jaitley said he was “synergising the investments in railways, roads, waterways and civil aviation” and pegged the expenditure for Railways at Rs 1,31,000 crores.Mooted by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, the decision to have a unified budget was made on the grounds that it would help raise capital expenditure for Railways.

Early announcement of Budget

Another colonial-era tradition that was done away this year, was presenting the financial expenditure on the first day of February rather than the last day. This was done in order to complete legislative approval for annual spending plans and tax proposals and also help companies and households finalise their savings, investment and tax plans before the beginning of the new financial year.

Atal Bihari Vajpayee's NDA I government in 2001 too had changed a colonial-era tradition of presenting the budget at 5 PM. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had changed the timing and advanced the presentation to 11 AM.

No adjournment despite the death of a sitting Parliamentarian

Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) leader E Ahamed passed away on Tuesday night, ahead of the budget presentation on Wednesday. As per the mandate, when a Parliamentarian or an ex-parliamentarian passes away, the house is adjourned as a sign of respect to the departed soul. However, despite the Opposition's demand, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan refused to adjourn the house on Budget day saying, “Today's sitting has been fixed by President for presentation of Budget 2017. Instead, the house will be adjourned tomorrow.”This comes after the winter session of Parliament was the least productive session in 15 years.

Abolition of Plan-Non Plan classification

According to the Finance Ministry, with abolition of the Planning Commission, the relevance of planned and non-planned expenditure was lost. Thus, it was decided that productive and general expenditure should be studied by classifying them under revenue and capital. According to FM Jaitley, it would facilitate optimal allocation of resources, as a result of which he also increased the allocation for capital expenditure by 25.4% as compared to the previous year.

FIPB abolished

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has been phased out and a further liberalisation of FDI policy is also under consideration.FDI has increased by 30% to US $21.62 billion during April-September fiscal of 2016.

Reduction in tax rate

Tax rate for those who fall within the bracket of Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh was halved to 5%, a move that has been welcomed. Zero tax liability was also announced for those who have income upto Rs 3 lakh.

On the corporate side, income tax for small companies with an annual turnover of Rs 50 crore, have also been reduced to 25% from the earlier 30%, giving reasons to cheer not only for individuals but also corporates.

Transparency​ in political funding

As remonetization begins and elections in five states are just around the corner, putting a cap on political funding can be termed as a bold move by the government. Jaitley in the budget announced that the maximum cash donation that a party can receive from a source cannot be more than Rs 2000. However transactions above the specific amount can be done by donors through RBI bonds, thus trying to give an impetus to cashless transactions.