Interim Budget 2019 highlights: Piyush Goyal presented interim budget of Narendra Modi govt with a slew of sops

Making a big populist push in its final budget before elections, the Narendra Modi-government exempted people with an earning of up to Rs 5 lakh from payment of income tax, announced an annual cash dole-out of Rs 6,000 to small farmers and provided a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 to workers in the unorganised sector.

Here are the key highlights of the interim Budget 2019-20 presented by Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in the Lok Sabha

• Income up to Rs 5 lakh exempted from income tax
• Standard Deduction raised to Rs 50,000 from Rs 40,000
• Direct tax proposals to provide Rs 23,000 cr relief to 3 cr taxpayers
• Persons with gross income up to Rs 6.50 lakh not required to pay any income tax if they make investments in provident funds, specified savings and insurance.
• 12 crore small, marginal farmers to be provided assured yearly income of Rs 6,000 under PM-KISAN scheme
• TDS threshold raised to Rs 40,000 from Rs 10,000 on interest earned on bank/post office deposits
• Tax exempted on notional rent on a second self-occupied house
• TDS threshold for deduction of tax on rent to be increased to Rs 2.40 lakh from Rs 1.80 lakh
• Tax benefits for affordable housing extended till 31 March, 2020
• Tax exemption period on notional rent on unsold inventories extended to two years from one year
• Allocated Rs 20,000 crore in 2018-19, Rs 75,000 crore for FY2019-20 for PM-KISAN scheme
• Interest subvention of 2 percentc during disaster to be provided to farmers for the entire period of reschedulement of loan
• 2 percent interest subvention to farmers for animal husbandry and fisheries activities; additional 3 percent in case of timely repayment
• Rs 3,000/month pension for 10 cr unorganised sector workers with contribution of Rs 100/55 per month under PM Shram Yogi Maandhan scheme
• Fiscal deficit pegged at 3.4 percent of GDP for 2019-20; target of 3 percent of fiscal deficit to be achieved by 2020-21
• Current Account Deficit pegged at 2.5 percent of GDP for FY20
• Total expenditure to rise by 13 percent to Rs 27.84 lakh cr in FY20
• National Education Mission allocation increased by about 20 percent to Rs 38,572 cr
• Allocation for Integrated Child Development Scheme increased by over 18 percent to Rs 27,584 cr
• Disinvestment target of Rs 80,000 cr in 2018-19 likely to be met; Target for FY20 set at Rs 90,000 cr
• 25 percent additional seats in educational institutions to meet the 10 percent reservation for the poor
• Defence budget to cross Rs 3,00,000 cr for the first time
• Allocation for North East increased by 21 percent to Rs 58,166 cr in FY20
• Railways to get capital support of Rs 64,587 cr in FY20
• Indian filmmakers to get access to single window clearance for ease of shooting films; regulatory norms to rely more on self-declaration
• 2 interest subsidy for MSMEs on an incremental loan of Rs 1 crore for GST-registered entities
• At least 3 percent of the 25 percent sourcing for the government undertakings to be from women-owned SMEs
• One lakh villages to be transformed into digital ones in 5 years
• New portal to support national programme on Artificial Intelligence
• Reforms in stamp duty; amendments to ensure streamlined system for levy of stamp duties to be imposed and collected at one place
• A separate Department of Fisheries to be created for welfare of 1.5 crore fisherman
• 22nd AIIMS to be set up in Haryana
• Rs 60,000 crore allocation for MGNREGA in 2019-20
• India poised to become $5 trillion economy in next 5 years; aspires to become $10 trillion in the subsequent 8 years.

--With inputs from PTI