Budget 2019 Highlights: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament. (LSTV screengrab)
Budget 2019 Highlights: India’s first woman Union Finance Minister in almost five decades, Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting the full-fledged Union Budget for the current financial year in Parliament.
Union Budget 2019: Follow LIVE updates here
Thanking voters for bringing back the Modi government to power for a second term, Sitharaman said, “The recent election was charged with brimming home and desire for a bright and stable ‘New India’. Voter turnout was highest; every section came to stamp their approval for performing Government”.
The Budget is being presented at a time when unemployment has touched a 45-year high, and India lost its tag as the world’s fastest-growing major economy to China in the last quarter of the fiscal year.
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Here are the key highlights of the Union Budget 2019:
*India to be Open-defecation free by October 2, 2019
*Cargo movement in Ganga will increase 4 times in 4 years
*Cess on petrol, diesel raised by Re 1 per litre
*Every single rural family, except those unwilling to take connection, to have electricity, LPG connection by 2022
*PAN and Aadhaar card made interchangeable, allowing those who do not have PAN to file returns
*Government to streamline multiple labour laws into a set of four labour codes
*Study in India programme to attract foreign students
*One woman in every SHG to get loan upto Rs 1 lakh under Mudra Yojana
*RBI to get regulation authority of housing finance sector
*Customs duty on certain parts of electric vehicles removed
*Power at affordable rates to states ensured under ‘One Nation, One Grid’
*TDS of 2 per cent on cash withdrawal of more than Rs 1 cr from a bank account
*Railway station modernisation programme to be launched this year
*Proposal to setup exclusive TV channel for startups
*Jal Jeevan Mission to achieve Har Ghar Jal (piped water supply) to all rural households by 2024
*Basic customs duty on auto parts, optical fibres, digital camera, cashew, certain synthetic rubber, vinyl flooring hiked
*Aadhaar card for NRIs with Indian passports to be issued after their arrival in India, without waiting for the
mandatory 180 days
*New series of coins of Re 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 easily identifiable for visually challenged to be made available for public use
*Blueprint for a national gas grid, water grid, i-ways and airports to be unveiled
*Funds raised by startups will not require any scrutiny by tax department
*Govt to build 17 iconic sites to encourage arrival of tourists in India
*Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana phase 3 to upgrade 1,25,000 km of road length over the next 5 years
*Package for power sector tariff and structural reforms to be unveiled soon
*1.95 cr houses to be constructed under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) from FY20-22
*NRI portfolio route to be merged with FPI for seamless investment in stock markets
*Govt to liberalise FDI in aviation, media, animation and insurance intermediaries
*10,000 new farmer producer organisations to be set up
*One hundred new clusters to be set up in 2019-20 to enable 50,000 artisans to come into economic value chain
*Proposal to expand Swachh Bharat mission to undertake sustainable solid waste management in every village
*5 per cent customs duty imposed on imported books
