Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in his debut budget speech, announced a mega push for the infrastructure sector. With today's speech, Nirmala Sitharaman became only the second women in the history of independent India to present the Union Budget.
Finance Minister announced a slew of steps to boost India's infrastructure including a budget allocation for 1,25,000 km of rural roads under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana at a cost of Rs 80,250 crore and creating a national highways grid.
Here are the top 10 announcements from Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget speech
1. Rs 1.25 lakh km of rural roads across the country will be upgraded under phase three of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY). Sitharaman said the allocation of Rs 80,250 crore had been made for the plan.
2. Additional tax deduction of Rs 1.50 lakh on interest on home loans taken up to March 2020 proposed
3. 2 per cent tax deducted at source (TDS) will be levied on cash withdrawals exceeding Rs 1 crore in a year from a bank account to discourage the practice of making business payments in cash.
4. Railways need an investment of Rs 50 lakh crore from 2018 to 2030 and proposed public-private partnership to unleash faster development of passenger and freight services.
5. The government on Friday hiked its disinvestment target in the current fiscal from Rs 90,000 crore to Rs 1.05 lakh crore.
6. The government Friday said it will soon make available for public use the new series coins of one, two, five, 10 and 20 rupees.
7. Railways will be encouraged to invest more in the suburban network through special purpose vehicle structures such as the Rapid Regional Transport System
8. Nirmala Sitharaman proposed a hike in customs duty on certain automobile parts and digital camera while waiving the same on certain electric vehicle components.
9. Govt to provide credit guarantee to PSBs to buy NBFC assets. Non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) play an important role in capital formation and the government will provide a one-time partial credit guarantee to PSBs to buy high-rated pooled assets of financially sound NBFCs.
10. Several direct tax incentives for GIFT City
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