Union Budget 2018 highlights
Source: The Sangai Express

New Delhi, February 01 2018: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2018-19 in Parliament on Thursday.

This budget, Jaitley's fifth, is the last full budget of this NDA Government before India goes to polls for the general elections due to take place in 2019.This is the first budget after big-ticket economic reforms such as the Goods and Services Tax (GST), dynamic fuel pricing, mega PSU bank recapitalisation and more.

The Union Budget 2018 also includes the Railway Budget, the latter was presented separately till it was decided to present a joint annual budget in 2017 .

Here are the sectoral highlights of Budget 2018-19:
Fiscal situation and targets .

GST revenue will be collected for 11 months and that would impact balance sheets.

Rs 21.57 lakh crore transferred in the form of net GST against the predicted Rs 21.47 lakh.

Government aims for 2018-19's fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP.

Revised fiscal deficit for 2017-18 was Rs 5.95 lakh crore or 3.5 per cent of GDP.

Agriculture and rural economy
Jaitley reasserted the government's resolve to double farmers' income, increase production from same land parcels.

In a major relief to farmers, minimum support price (MSP) for all upcoming Kharif crops has been raised to 1.5 times the cost of production.

In case the market prices are lower than MSP, government would procure the produce or ensure farmers get right prices.

Comment