Highlights for Education Sector in Union Budget 2016-17

Jaitley said a unified agricultural market would be launched on April 14 and soil health cards will be provided to all 14 crore farmers by March 2017.

In an interview to Doordarshan News, Jaitley said, “Inequality arises in amnesty, where under certain exemptions, you as a honest tax payer has paid 30 per cent and I come and join after 20 years and say that I would also pay 30 per cent”.

While CPI National Secretary D Raja said there is nothing spectacular in this budget, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge mentioned that there is nothing in this Budget for anybody other than corporates close to the ruling government.

With key state elections coming up later in the year, an image of being friendly to big business at the expense of welfare spending, and with severe droughts affecting large swathes of the country’s rural population, the Indian government announced the national budget Monday, allocating huge sums of money for the rural economy.

Jaitley allocated Rs. 1400 crore as plan outlay to sports, while Rs 192 crore was set aside for non-plan, taking the total to Rs. 1592 crore.

In a major push to infrastructure projects, Government announced to spend Rs 2.21 lakh crore on roads and railways with an emphasis is on improving passenger traffic on roads by opening up road transport sector for entrepreneurs to benefit the common man.

We saw an allocation of INR 85000 crore for road and infrastructure development in Budget 2015, whereas this year, the Finance Ministry has increased the allocation of investment to INR 97000 crore for the same.

The government said it will implement a slew of irrigation projects, construct roads in rural areas and speed up projects to bring electricity within two years to remote areas that fall dark after sunset.

It is expected that raising the ceiling of tax rebate under section 87A from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 will lessen tax burden on individuals with income up to Rs 5 lakh. Similarly the TDS threshold for winning in horse race has been increased from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000.

But we need more details on things like potential sell-offs of government businesses before we can judge this budget.

The minister began his speech saying that India was a bright spot in the global economy in these hard times.

On Friday the annual pre-budget Economic Survey said gross domestic product (GDP) would expand between 7.0 percent and 7.75 percent in the next financial year, marking little change from this year’s levels. But attempts to overhaul manufacturing have not been as successful as intended, and farming remains the major source of employment.

The BJP’s rout in a crucial poll past year in Bihar – a largely agrarian state – has raised fears voter support is dwindling.