Union Budget 2019-20 Highlights and Analysis

New Delhi: Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman made her maiden Budget Speech on Friday and presented the Union Budget 2019-20 before Parliament.

The key highlights of Union Budget 2019 are as follows:

Towards a 5 Trillion Dollar Economy

*"People?s hearts filled with Aasha (Hope), Vishwas (Trust), Aakansha (Aspirations)," says FM.

* Indian economy to become a 3 trillion dollar economy in the current year.

* Government aspires to make India a 5 trillion dollar economy.

Union Budget 2019-2020

*""India Inc. are India?s job-creators and nation?s wealth-creator"", says FM.

Need for investment in:

# Infrastructure.

# Digital economy.

# Job creation in small and medium firms.

# Initiatives to be proposed for kick-starting the virtuous cycle of investments.

# Common man's life changed through MUDRA loans for ease of doing business.

"India Inc. are India?s job-creators and nation?s wealth-creators", says FM.

The key highlights of Union Budget 2019 are as follows:

10-point Vision for the decade

1. Building Team India with Jan Bhagidari: Minimum Government Maximum Governance.

2. Achieving green Mother Earth and Blue Skies through a pollution-free India.

3. Making Digital India reach every sector of the economy.

4. Launching Gaganyan, Chandrayan, other Space and Satellite programmes.

5. Building physical and social infrastructure.

6. Water, water management, clean rivers.

7. Blue Economy.

8. Self-sufficiency and export of food-grains, pulses, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables.

9. Achieving a healthy society via Ayushman Bharat, well-nourished women & children, safety of citizens.

10. Emphasis on MSMEs, Start-ups, defence manufacturing, automobiles, electronics, fabs and batteries, and medical devices under Make in India.

Union Budget Live Updates

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the only woman to hold the portfolio after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi presented the Union Budget on Friday. Here are key takeaways...

• India will aim to become a $3 trillion economy in FY20, $5 trillion in a few years
• To kick-start domestic and foreign investment
• Time right for India to enter into aircraft financing and leasing
• To implement enabling measures to boost International Financial Service Centres (IFSCs)- Will create congenial atmosphere for development of MRO services
• Pension benefits will be offered to 3 crore shopowners with annual turnover of less than Rs 1.5 crore under new scheme called Pradhan Mantri Man dhan Scheme
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• Pension benefits will be offered to 3 crore shopowners with annual turnover of less than Rs 1.5 crore under new scheme called Pradhan Mantri Man dhan Scheme
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• There will be multiple measures undertaken to deepen the corporate bond market, she says adding there is also a proposal to increase minimum public shareholding in companies to 35 percent from 25 percent.
• We will work to make a platform for listing social enterprises and voluntary organisations to raise capital as equity, debt or units like mutual fund, Sitharaman says
• India's FDI flows in 2018-19 remained strong compared to global at $54.2 billion, 6 percent higher than last year. The government will examine options of opening up FDI in media, animation and some other sectors to improve these flows further, she says.
• The government is contemplating organising an annual global meet to get all three sets of global players: Industrialists, corporate leaders, corporate sovereign and venture funds, she says.
• The first session of the newly-elected Lok Sabha will be convened from June 17 to July 26 and the new government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will present its first Budget on July 5, in which it is expected to provide an insight about the programmes to be undertaken in the second term.
• Nearly 1,25,000 km of roads will be upgraded under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana at estimated cost of nearly Rs 80,200 crore, she says.
• Every single rural family except those unwilling to get access will have electricity by 2022, she says
• Nearly 1.95 crore houses are proposed to be provided to eligible beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, she points out. The completion of houses that required 314 days in 2015-16, it has now come down to 114 days since 2017, she highlights.
• The finance minister has said that she would like to assure the nation that, except those unwilling to take the connection, all will have electricity connection, by 2022.
• Nearly 1.95 crore houses are proposed to be provided to eligible beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, she points out. The completion of houses that required 314 days in 2015-16, it has now come down to 114 days since 2017, she highlights.
• Every single rural family except those unwilling to get access will have electricity by 2022, she says
• Nearly 1,25,000 km of roads will be upgraded under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana at estimated cost of nearly Rs 80,200 crore
• The government plans to allow FPIs to Subscribe to listed debt papers of REITs and InviTs, she says, adding there is also a proposal to merge NRI portfolio route with FPI routes.
• Appreciating farmers' efforts in production of pulses, she says the government hopes they will exhibit similar performance in oilseeds as well. The government will work to ensure farmers enjoy the benefits of e-nam  Ease of business and living should apply to farmers too, she says
• Ensuring farmers access to safe and adequate water is another important initiative the government will work toward, she says. Water supply in an integrated and holistic manner will help ensure 'Har Ghar Jal' or water to each house, she says.
• Swachh Bharat has brought enormous environmental and health benefits. 9.6 crore toilets have been constructed and more than 5.6 lakh villages have become open-defecation free, she says while proposing to expand and undertake solid waste management in every village
• Nearly 95% of all cities have declared themselves open-defecation free. More than 45,000 public toilets have been uploaded on google maps and nearly 1 crore citizens have downloaded the Swachhta app, she says.
• The government proposes a National Education Policy to transform and take India's higher education system to global standards, she says.
• To upgrade quality of teaching, the GYAN was started aimed to bring in the global pool of scientists and researchers, she says, adding such initiatives have paid off. From no single Indian institute in top 200 universities ranking until 5 years ago, we now have 3 institutions in the top 200 global institutions bracket. To make India a hub of higher education the government proposes 'Study in India' to bring in foreign students to pursue education here, she says.
• The government proposes allocation of Rs 400 crore for world-class higher education institutions in the country, she says
• We will increase our efforts to improve the skills of our youth in newer areas such as Artifical Intelligence, Big Data, Robotics, etc valued highly within and outside the country to ensure they can secure high paying jobs both in India and abroad, she says.
• A new channel is proposed to be started under Doordarshan bouquet to provide a platform for startups to disseminate information in the industry.
• The Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan Dhan Yojana of providing Rs 3,000  - nearly 30 lakh workers have joined the scheme, she says
• For the women of India - Naari to Narayani has been the tradition of the country., she says quoting Swami Vivekananda, "There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly with one wing''
• I propose a committee to evaluate and suggest measure to improve women's welfare, she says, pointing out how India's women have stood out distinctly in every field. This reinforces our approach of going beyond just women-centric policies to building women-led movements, she says
• The government proposes to consider issuing Aadhaar cards to NRIs with Indian passports in India without having to wait for the necessary 180 days, she says
• The government is developing 17 iconic tourism sites as world-class tourist centres to improve the flow of domestic and foreign tourists to these destinations. Documentaries with anthropological details will be stored for tourists, she says
• Record recovery of over Rs 4 lakh crore have achieved over last 4 years. Provision coverage ratio is at its highest in 7 years and credit growth has improved to over 13%. The government has smoothly carried out consolidation reducing the number of public sector banks by 8. We have enabled 6 public sector banks out of PCA: FM Nirmala Sitharaman
• The government has proposed to allocate Rs 70,000 crore for PSU Bank recapitalisation.
• One-time six month partial credit guarantee to buy pooled assets of sound NBFCs
• Regulation of HFCs to move to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from NHB
• FM Nirmala Sitharaman has proposed Rs 100 lakh crore investment for infrastructure over 5 years
• The government is setting an enhanced target of Rs 1,05,000 crore for disinvestment during FY20 and will continue with disinvestment of PSUs in the non-financial space as well, she says
• India's sovereign external debt to GDP is among the lowest globally at less than 5%, she points out. A new series of coins including for Rs 20 will be made available for public use shortly, she says.
• Foreign shareholding limit of CPSEs is proposed to be hiked to permissible sectoral limits, she says
• FM Sitharaman thanks taxpayers who as responsible citizens for their valuable contribution through taxes for all-round development of the country.
• The tax collection has increased to 11.37 lakh crore to 2018-19 from 6.37 lakh crore from 2013-14, she points out.
• Additional income tax deduction of Rs 1.5 lakh on interest paid on loans taken to buy electric vehicles. This leads to a benefit of Rs 2.5 lakh crore over the tax period of the loan for the loan payer.
• An additional deduction of Rs 1,50,000 on interest on loans borrowed under affordable housing unitl 2020.
• The Securities Transaction Tax or STT is proposed to be restricted to the difference between settlement and strike price of options, she says
• Direct Taxes - In view of rising income levels, a surcharge will be levied on individuals with taxable income of Rs 2 to 5 crore, and Rs 5 cr and above. The effective tax rate for these categories will increase by around 3% and 7%, respectively
• Our government has taken number of initiatives to promote digital payments. FM says to discourage the practice of making business payments in cash the government proposes to levy TDS of 2% on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs 1 crore in a year from a bank account, she says.
• BHIM, UPI, Aadhaar Pay, NEFT, RTGS can be used to promote less cash economy. Business establishments with annual turnover of Rs 50 crore will have to use these modes of payments with no charges or merchant discount rates will be imposed on customers or merchants. RBI and banks will absorb these costs, she says.

In its previous term, the Modi government had on February 1 presented the interim Budget in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

The 40-day session will have 30 sittings, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar had said after the first meeting of the new Union Cabinet. The first two days of the session have been kept for oath taking by the newly elected members, he said.

The first full Budget is expected to see various announcements made in the Vote-on-Account to be either implemented or taken forward.

Among those proposals, the Cabinet had already decided in the interim Budget to expand the PM Kisan scheme of giving Rs 6,000 to small farmers to cover all the agriculturists.

The other major highlights of the interim Budget, presented by Piyush Goyal, included exemption on income tax of individuals up to an earning of Rs 5 lakh per annum and provision of a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 to workers in the unorganised sector.

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