Wealthfund Analysts desk – Key take away about Budget 2018
Individuals and salaried class
- Tax slab rates remain the same
- Introduction of Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 for the salaried class
- Education cess now to be called as Health and Education cess with effective rate increased to 4% from 3%
- Introduction of tax on LTCG above Rs. 1 lakh on sale of equity shares @ 10%. Capital gain tax for until 31 January 2018 will be grandfathered
For Senior citizens
- No Tax on interest from saving and Fixed Deposit of upto Rs 50,000
- Exemption under Section 80D upto Rs 50,000 for medical insurance for senior citizens
- Exemption limit for medical expenditure for certain critical illness raised from Rs 60,000/- and from Rs 80,000 in case of very senior citizens, to Rs 1 lakh, under section 80DDB
Other Major highlights of the budget
- For companies with annual turnover of Rs 250 crore or less, corporate tax rate has been reduced to 25%
- Revised fiscal deficit estimate for FY 2017-18 is Rs 5.95 lakh crore at 3.5% of GDP
- Fiscal deficit for FY 2018-19 pegged at 3.3% of GDP
- Divestment target pegged at Rs 80,000 crore for FY 2018-19. The government exceeded the target of Rs 72,500 crore for FY 2017-18 to achieve Rs 1 lakh crore
- Rs 1.49 lakh crore earmarked as the capital expenditure for Indian Railways for FY 2018-19
- 10% tax will be levied on dividend distributed income by equity-oriented mutual funds.
- Minimum support price (MSP) is kept at 1.5 times the cost of production for all upcoming Kharif crops
- Rs 5.97 lakh crore for infrastructure in FY19 compared with Rs 4.94 lakh crore in the revised estimates of FY18
- To launch a flagship National Health Protection Scheme to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families – aims to provide Rs 5 lakh per family per year for medical reimbursement