Finance minister Piyush Goyal on Friday presented the much awaited Union Budget in Lok Sabha. Goyal was appointed interim finance minister on January 23 with Arun Jaitley undergoing treatment in the United States. Here is a look at the main points of the Budget presented by Piyush Goyal-

  1. Individual taxpayers with annual income up to 5 lakh rupees to get full tax rebate.
  2. Individuals with gross income up to 6.5 lakh rupees will not need to pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities.
  3. Standard tax deduction for salaried persons raised from 40,000 rupees to 50,000 rupees.
  4. TDS threshold on rental income raised from 1.8 lakh to 2.4 lakh rupees.
  5. Gratuity limit increased from 10 lakh to 30 lakh rupees.
  6. Benefit of rollover of capital tax gains to be increased from investment in one residential house to that in two residential houses, for a taxpayer having capital gains up to 2 crore rupees; can be exercised once in a lifetime.
  7. Businesses with less than Rs. 5 crore annual turnover, comprising over 90% of GST payers, will be allowed to return quarterly returns.
  8. Two per cent interest subvention on loan of 1 crore for GST registered MSME units.
  9. Within almost two years, almost all assessment and verification of IT returns will be done electronically by an anonymized tax system without any intervention by tax officials.
  10. Single window clearance for filmmaking to be made available to Indian filmmakers, anit-camcording provision to be introduced to Cinematography Act to combat film privacy.
  11. Mega Pension Yojana, namely Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan, to provide assured monthly pension of 3000 rupees per month, with contribution of 100 rupees per month, for workers in unorganised sector after 60 years of age.
  12. Under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, 6000 rupees per year for each farmer, in three installments, to be transferred directly to farmers’ bank accounts, for farmers with less than 2 hectares land holding.
  13. The 4R approach has been implemented to ensure clean banking –
    Recognition
    2.Resolution
    3.Recapitalisation 
    4.Reforms