Highlights of Union Budget 2016-17

Finance minister Arun Jaitley presented Union Budget 2016-17 in Parliament on Monday. Here are the key highlights of his speech:

Personal Finance

No changes have been made to existing income tax slabs

Rs 1,000 crore allocated for new EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) scheme

Govt. will pay EPF contribution of 8.33% for all new employees for first three years

Deduction for rent paid will be raised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000 to benefit those living in rented houses.

Additional exemption of Rs. 50,000 for housing loans up to Rs. 35 lakh, provided cost of house is not above Rs. 50 lakh.

Service tax exempted for housing construction of houses less than 60 sq. m

15 per cent surcharge on income above Rs. 1 crore

Tax

Infrastructure and agriculture cess to be levied.

Excise duty raised from 10 to 15 per cent on tobacco products other than beedis

1 per cent service charge on purchase of luxury cars over Rs. 10 lakh and in-cash purchase of goods and services over Rs. 2 lakh.

SUVs, Luxury cars to be more expensive. 4% high capacity tax for SUVs.

Companies with revenue less than Rs 5 crore to be taxed at 29% plus surcharge

Limited tax compliance window from Jun 1 - Sep 30 for declaring undisclosed income at 45% incl. surcharge and penalties

Excise 1 per cent imposed on articles of jewellery, excluding silver.

0.5 per cent Krishi Kalyan Cess to be levied on all services.

Pollution cess of 1 per cent on small petrol, LPG and CNG cars; 2.5 per cent on diesel cars of certain specifications; 4 per cent on higher-end models.

Dividend in excess of Rs. 10 lakh per annum to be taxed at additional 10 per cent. 

Social Sector

Rs. 38,500 crore for Mahtma Gandhi MGNREGA for 2016-17

Swacch Bharat Abhiyan allocated Rs.9,500 crores.

Hub to support SC/ST entrpreneurs

Government is launching a new initiative to provide cooking gas to BPL families with state support.

LPG connections to be provided under the name of women members of family: Rs 2000 crore allocated for 5 years for BPL families.

2.87 lakh crore grants to gram panchayats and municipalities - a quantum jump of 228%.

300 urban clusters to be set up under Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission

Four schemes for animal welfare. 

Health

2.2 lakh renal patients added every year in India. Basic dialysis equipment gets some relief.

A new health protection scheme for health cover upto 1 lakh per family.

National Dialysis Service Prog with funds thru PPP mode to provide dialysis at all district hospitals.

Senior citizens will get additional healthcare cover of Rs 30,000 under the new scheme

PM Jan Aushadhi Yojana to be strengthened, 300 generic drug store to be opened 

Education

Scheme to get Rs.500 cr for promoting entrepreneurship among SC/ST

10 public and 10 private educational institutions to be made world-class.

Digital repository for all school leaving certificates and diplomas. Rs. 1,000 crore for higher education financing.

Rs. 1,700 crore for 1500 multi-skill development centres.

62 new navodaya vidyalayas to provide quality education

Digital literacy scheme to be launched to cover 6 crore additional rural households

Entrepreneurship training to be provided across schools, colleges and massive online courses.

Objective to skill 1 crore youth in the next 3 years under the PM Kaushal Vikas Yojna-FM Jaitley

National Skill Development Mission has imparted training to 76 lakh youth. 1500 Multi-skill training institutes to be set up.