In her first budget since becoming the finance minister in the second term of the Modi Government, Nirmala Sitharaman kept the focus on the future and improving the delivery mechanism as she outlined the financial policy and major decisions for the coming year.

Some of the key highlights of the Budget were:

• All companies with an annual turnover of Rs. 400 crore will now be under the 25 per cent tax bracket (earlier it only applied to companies with turnover of Rs. 250 crore or less.) providing some tax relief
• An announcement that FDI restrictions in Retail, Aviation, Insurance, Animation and Media will be eased
• Public Private Partnership (PPP) model will be incorporated in Indian Railways for accelerated development, rolling stock manufacturing and the delivery of freight
• An investment of 50 lakh crore in Railway Infrastructure between 2018 and 2030 was also announced.
• A disinvestment target of 1.05 lakh crore was set, which was a significant increase from the target of 85000 crore set last year
• An infusion of an additional capital of Rs 70,000 crore in to public banks.
• A 2% TDS was announced for Cash withdrawals of more than Rs. 1 crore a year
• The income tax limit of Rs 5 lakh per year was unchanged but there was a 3% Increase in the surcharge for individuals with incomes between 2 to 5 cr. 7% increases in the surcharge for incomes above 5 cr.
• An announcement of National Sports Education Board for development of sportspersons was made to be set up under Khelo India.
• The fiscal deficit would be around 3.3%
• The customs duty on steel has been raised to 5% and in gold and special metals went up to 12.5%
• New Space India Limited (NSIL) will be incorporated to build on the R&D carried out by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)

A major focus of the budget was also on Infrastructure and the new Water Ministry established by the Modi government. An announcement of Rs 100 lakh crore in infra, upgradation of several lakh kms of roads, building on the Bharatmala project and also critical steps to assess Water shortage and other key issues.

Overall it was lauded by many experts and PM Narendra Modi too hailed the budget.

You can watch the entire speech here:

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