India interim budget: No tax for individual incomes up to Rs 500,000

Acting Finance minister Piyush Goyal is presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha. Read on for the highlights from his budget speech:

No tax for individual incomes up to Rs 5 lakh

In a bonanza for the country's middle class in an election year, the government proposed tax exemption for individual annual incomes of Rs 5 lakh (Dh25,825).

Presenting the Interim Budget 2019-20, acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal proposed doubling the standard deduction threshold for individual annual incomes from the current Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

Mega pension scheme for unorganised sector workers

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday announced the "Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan", a scheme to provide an assured monthly pension of Rs 3,000 per month for workers in the unorganised sector who earn up to Rs 15,000 per month.

The scheme will benefit 10 crore workers and might become the world's biggest pension scheme for the unorganised sector in the next five years.

"Half of India's GDP comes from the sweat and toil of 42 crore workers in the unorganised sector. We must provide them a social security coverage," said Goyal.

He said the mega pension scheme will benefit all workers under the unorganised sector including household helps, rickshaw pullers, agricultural labourers and beedi workers.

Under the scheme, the workers will receive a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 after attaining 60 years of age.

A worker joining the scheme on attaining 29 years of age or above will have to contribute Rs 100 per month while those joining the at the age of 18 will have to contribute Rs 55 per month.

Goyal said this scheme will be in addition to the life insurance scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and accident insurance scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY)

Committee to identify nomadic, semi-nomadic communities

A committee under the NITI Aayog has been formed to complete the task of identifying nomadic and semi-nomadic communities which are not yet classified.

The Finance Minister said that special strategies will be designed to serve these communities.

He also said that the government this time will move ahead from "women development to women-led development".

According to Goyal, there were 75 per cent of women beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Matritva Yojana.

Single window clearance for Indian filmmakers

There will be a single window clearances for Indian filmmakers for smooth shooting of films.

While presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha, Minister Piyush Goyal said: "Entertainment industry is a major employment generator. To promote the entertainment industry, there will be single window clearance to ease shooting of films.

"This was earlier available only to foreigners (and) is now going to be made available to Indian filmmakers as well."

Goyal also said that the government will include anti-camcording provisions in the Cinematography Act to control piracy.

Government to launch National Artificial Intelligence Portal

The government will soon launch the National Artificial Intelligence Portal.

Presenting the Interim Budget 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha, Goyal also said that nine priority areas had been identified for the development of the Artificial Intelligence sector.

60 million LPG connections given under Ujjwala

Over 6 crore (60 million) free cooking gas connections have been provided under the government's Ujjwala Yojana scheme aimed at providing LPG to poor households, the Centre announced on Friday.

Presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20, acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said that with such progress made in providing clean cooking fuel, the current government was well in course to meeting within its present tenure the target of the Ujjwala scheme of providing 8 crore free LPG connections to poor families.

"The Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana is a remarkable success story of the government and the majority of beneficiaries are women," Goyal said.

Defence budget crosses Rs 3 lakh crore

The defence budget for 2019-20 has crossed Rs 3 lakh crore, the highest in any year so far, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal said in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

"Our soldiers protect the country on the borders and they are our pride. We have allocated more than Rs 3 lakh crore in this budget for securing our borders, which is the highest so far. If necessary, additional funds would be provided," he said presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20.

Goyal said the government had implemented the One Rank, One Pension concept and had already disbursed Rs 35,000 crore.

"While the Congress governments only put the OROP promise in the budget thrice, we have implemented it," he said.

Pension scheme for unorganised sector workers

Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday announced the "Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan", a scheme to provide assured monthly pension of Rs 3,000 per month for workers in the unorganised sector.

While presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha, Goyal said the scheme will benefit 10 crore workers and might become the world's biggest pension scheme for the unorganised sector in the next five years.

Under the scheme, the workers will receive a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 after 60 years of age. The workers will then have to contribute Rs 100 per month towards the scheme.

Annual income support of Rs 6,000 to farmers

New Delhi: Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday announced direct annual income support of Rs 6,000 to farmers with land holding of two hectares.

Presenting the Interim Budget for 2019-20 in the Lok Sabha, Goyal said the Pradhan Mantri Fund Scheme has been constituted with an aim to double farmers' income by 2022.

He said Rs 75,000 crore will be allocated for the scheme for 2019-20 and Rs 20,000 crore has been set apart in the revised estimates for the current year 2018-19.

The money will be transferred in three instalments through direct benefit transfer. The scheme, to be implemented from December 1, 2018, will be notified shortly.

He also said that Rs 1.7 lakh crore has been allocated on food subsidy and Rs 60,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Modi government reversed policy paralysis, put India back on track 

Piyush Goyal said the Modi government has reversed the policy paralysis of the past, restored the image of the country and put it on the path of sustained growth, making India the world's fastest growing economy.

He said the government had "broken the back" of the "back breaking" inflation which was brought down to 2.9 per cent in December and an average of 4.6 per cent which was the lowest than under any previous government.

"If we had not controlled inflation, families would have spent 30 to 40 per cent on food, housing and other things," he said.

Goyal also said that India was the fastest growing economy in the world and the growth rate achieved by this government was the highest by any government since economic reforms were introduced in 1991.

"We are now the sixth largest economy in the world against being the 11th in the past."

Apart from ensuring high growth rate, the government had restored fiscal balance, he said.

In the last five years, path-breaking structural reforms have been made which includes the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax.

"India is back on track. We have prepared the foundation for sustainable growth and better quality of life. We are moving towards realising a New India by 2022," he said amidst thumping of desks by ruling party members and jeers from the opposition.