Highlight Pointers of Union Budget 2017-18

Union Budget 2017-18 Highlights

Themes of the Budget

Farmers, for whom we have committed to double the income in five years.
Rural Population Providing employment and basic infrastructure.
Youth Energizing them through education, skills and jobs.
Poor and the underprivileged Strengthening the systems of social security, health care and affordable housing.
Infrastructure For efficiency, productivity and quality of life.
Financial Sector Growth and stability through stronger institutions.
Digital Economy For speed, accountability and transparency.
Public Service Effective governance and efficient service delivery through people’s participation.
Prudent Fiscal Management To ensure optimal deployment of resources and preserve fiscal stability.

Sectorwise Performance Agriculture

Sowing farmers should feel secure against natural calamities.
A sum of Rs 10 lakh crore is allocated as credit to farmers, with 60 days interest waiver.
NABARD fund will be increased to Rs 40000 crore.
The government will set-up mini labs in Krishi Vigyan Kendras for soil testing.
A dedicated micro irrigation fund will be set-up for NABARD with Rs 5000 crore initial corpus.
Irrigation corpus increased from Rs 20000 crore to Rs 40000 crore.
Dairy processing infrastructure fund will be initially created with a corpus of Rs 2000 crore.
Issuance of soil cards has gained momentum.
A model law on contract farming will be prepared and shared with the States.

Infrastructure and Railways

3500 km of railway lines to be commissioned this year up from 2800 km last year.
By 2019 all trains will have bio-toilets.
A total allocation of Rs 3961354 crore has been made for infrastructure
Total allocation for Railways is Rs 131000 crore.
No service charge on tickets booked through IRCTC.
Raksha coach with a corpus of Rs 1 lakh crore for five years (for passenger safety).
Unmanned level crossings will be eliminated by 2020.
SMS-based ‘clean my coach service’ is put in place.
Coach Mitra facility will be introduced to register all coach related complaints.
500 stations will be made differently-abled friendly.
Railways to partner with logistics players for front-end and back-end solutions for select commodities.
Railways will offer competitive ticket booking facility.
Rs 64000 crore allocated for highways-
High speed Internet to be allocated to 150000 Gram Panchayats.
New metro rail policy will be announced with new modes of financing.

Financial Sector

FDI policy reforms—more than 90% of FDI inflows are now automated.
Shares of Railway PSE like IRCTC will be listed on stock exchanges.
Bill on resolution of financial firms will be introduced in this session of Parliament.
Foreign Investment Promotion Board will be abolished.
Revised mechanism to ensure time-bound listing of CPSEs.
Computer emergency response team for financial sector will be formed.
Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana lending target fixed at f 2.44 lakh crore for 2017-18.
Digital India-BHIM app will unleash mobile phone revolution.
The government will introduce two schemes to promote BHIM
App—referral bonus for the users and cash back for the traders.
Negotiable Instruments Act might be amended.
DBT to LPG consumers, Chandigarh is kerosene-free, 84 government schemes are on the DBT platform.