Picture : Twitter / ANI
The first budget of Narendra Modi government’s second tenure is the maiden one for Union Finance Minister Sitharaman, who is the second woman finance minister of India after Indira Gandhi.
Here are some highlights of the Speech :
– India will become a $3 trillion economy by the end of the current year itself. “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. Five years ago it was at the 11th position,” she said in her maiden Budget speech.
Sitharaman also said that the BJP-led government has added one trillion dollars to the Indian economy in five years whereas it took 55 years to reach that number earlier.
“It took us over 55 years to reach $1 trillion dollar economy. But when the hearts are filled with hope, trust and aspiration, we in just 5 years, added $1 trillion,” she said.
Sitharaman added that the first term of Narendra Modi-led NDA govt “stood out as a performing government”.
– 17 Iconic Tourism Sites to be Developed – 17 “iconic sites” will be transformed into world-class destinations to give a boost to the tourism sector. Sitharaman said the 17 model sites will be built by the government to encourage the arrival of tourists in the country.
“One hundred new clusters will be set up in 2019-20 to enable 50,000 artisans to come into the economic value chain,” she said.
The finance minister said the government will take measures to ensure that the rich tribal culture of the country is preserved.
Sitharaman said a digital tribal repository will be created, in which photos, videos, details of origin, education, lifestyle, skill sets, traditional arts and other anthropological information will be stored.
“The government will launch a mission to integrate traditional artisans and creative persons with the global market to obtain patents for them,” she said.
New Coins From Rs 1 To Rs 20 Soon – 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.
Coins in this new series have been designed by the National Institute of Design with several differentiating features to make it easier for visually-impaired individuals to identify them. Not only distinctive markings, the coins will now get bigger and weigh more with the increase in denomination to make recognising them easier.
The obverse face of all the coins will show the Lion Capitol of Ashoka Pillar with the legend ‘Satyamev Jayate’ in Hindi inscribed below. On its left flank will be the word ‘Bharat’ in Hindi, and on the right flank will be the word ‘INDIA’ in English.
The reverse face of the coins will have their denominational values written in international numerals. The Rupee symbol will be placed above this denominational value. The denomination of the coin will be written in words, in Hindi on top right and in English on the top right and bottom right peripheries of the reverse face. For example, the Rs 20 coin will have ‘Bees Ruapye’ in Devenagri script and ‘Twenty Rupees’ written on its back. The year of minting in international numerals shall be shown on centre of left periphery of the coin.
- To resolve the so-called Angel Tax issue, the startups & their investors who file requisite declarations&provide information in their returns will not be subjected to any kind of scrutiny in respect of valuations of share premiums.
- To discourage the practice of making business payments in cash I propose to levy TDS of 2% on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs 1 crore in a year from a bank account,
- Strategic disinvestment of select Central Public Sector Enterprises will continue to be a priority; strategic disinvestment of Air India will re-initiate; Rs 1 lakh 5 thousand crore is disinvestment target for 2019-20.
- More than 120 crore Indians now have Aadhar card, therefore for ease of tax payers I propose to make PAN card and Aadhar card interchangeable and allow those who don’t have PAN to file returns by simply quoting Aadhar number and use it wherever they require to use PAN.
- To provide further impetus to affordable housing, additional deduction of 1.5 lakh rupees on interest paid on loans borrowed upto 31 March 2020 for purchase of house up to Rs 45 lakhs.
- I propose to increase special additional excise duty and road and infrastructure cess each one by 1 rupee a litre on petrol and diesel.
- Under PMAY (Urban), over 81 Lakh houses with investment of about Rs 4.83 Lakh Cr have been sanctioned of which construction has started in about 47 Lakh houses. Over 26 Lakh houses have been completed of which nearly 24 Lakh houses have been delivered, to beneficiaries..
- To popularise sports at all levels, National Sports Education Board for development of sportspersons to be set up under Khelo India.
- To further encourage women entrepreneurship, Women Self Help Group(SHG) Interest Subvention Programme to be expanded to all districts in India
