Finance Minister Piyush Goyal, today presented the Interim Budget 2019 before the polls. Goyal emphasizing the key initiatives taken by Narendra Modi government’s and presenting the sixth and final budget. Interim budget 2019 has wooed the middle class and farmers.
He announced for individual taxpayers that no tax on income up to Rs 5 lakh, farmer income support scheme of Rs 6,000 per year and provided concessions on interest income from bank deposits and rent. Standard deduction has been increased by Rs, 10,000 to benefit salaried class. Individuals with gross income up to Rs. 6.5 lakhs will not need to pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities, he said.
The Finance Minister said that the Income Tax returns to be processed within 24 hours and returns will be paid immediately and the gratuity limit has been increased for workers. The tax base is up from Rs 3.79 crore to 6.85 crore as the Direct tax collections increased from Rs 6.38 lakh crore in 2013-14 to almost Rs 12 lakh crore.
Farm loan takers can avail interest subvention scheme and new pension scheme for unorganised sector workers along with higher allocation for rural schemes like MNREGA and village roads. Businesses with less than Rs 5 crore annual turnover, comprising over 90 per cent of GST payers, will be allowed to return quarterly return, he added.
Goyal addressed, “Government has undertaken many effective steps to strengthen MSME sector, which provides employment to crores of people. Recently, a scheme of sanctioning loans up to Rs 1 crore in 59 minutes has been launched. GST-registered SME units will get 2 per cent interest rebate on an incremental loan of Rs 1 Crore. The requirement of sourcing from SMEs by Government enterprises has been increased to 25 per cent. Of this, the material to the extent of at least 3 per cent will be sourced from women-owned SMEs.”
He claims that India is poised to become a 5 trillion USD Dollar economy in the next 5 years, 10-trillion USD Dollar economy in the next eight years.
Goods and Services Tax (GST) has been continuously reduced, resulting in relief of 80,000 crore rupees to consumers and most items of daily use for the poor and middle class are now in the 0-5 per cent tax bracket. The fiscal deficit is seen at 3.4 per cent in FY 19 and Current account deficit at 2.5% of the GDP.
Indian GDP has seen a growth in the last 5 years which has been higher than that by any other govt. Spent Rs 2.6 lakh crore in a recap of PSU Banks, Goyal said. The government has brought down the inflation from 10 per cent in the UPA era to 4 per cent. The Income Tax department will move towards faceless assessment and verification of returns, he said.
Goyal ended the speech, “Development has become a mass-movement during the period of our Government. We have laid the foundation with the help of the people and now we will transform India into a leading nation of the world.”
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