Piyush Goyal, who has been appointed as the interim finance minister presented his maiden Union Budget in the Lok Sabha today. While a full-fledged budget will be presented once the new Central government is formed after the general elections due in March-April, this interim budget, as has been the custom, will seek the Parliament’s nod for meeting the expenditure for the next few months of the new fiscal.

In his speech, while taking the opportunity to throw some light on the various schemes introduced by the Modi Government in the past years, Goyal claimed that India is poised to become a 5 trillion dollar economy in the next five years, and a 10 trillion dollar economy in the next eight years.

On inflation, Goyal commented that India has controlled double-digit inflation. “From 10.1% during 2009-14, inflation in December 2018 was just 2.1%. We have broken the back of back-breaking inflation.”

On GST, Goyal remarked that the implementation of GST has brought a relief of 80,000 crore rupees to the Indian consumers and most items of daily use now brought in the 0-5% tax bracket. Further India has become one common market through tax consolidation, inter-state movements have become faster through e-way bills and Ease of Doing Business has improved.

Fiscal deficit pegged at 3.4 per cent in the Interim Budget, while Capital expenditure is pegged at 3.36,292 lakh crore. Expenditure is expected to rise by 13% from revised estimate 2018-19 to budget estimate 2019-20, Goyal said.

Goyal in his Budget speech announced the following -

* Committee under NITI Aayog to be set up to identify and denotify nomadic and semi-nomadic communities; Welfare Development Board to be set up under Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for welfare of hard-to-reach communities and for tailored strategic interventions.

* Mega Pension Yojana, namely Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan to provide assured monthly pension of 3000 rupees per month, with contribution of 100 rupees per month, fo workers in unorganized sector after 60 years of age.

* Under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, 6000 rupees per year for each farmer, in three installments to be transferred directly to farmer’s bank accounts, for farmers with less than 2 hectares land holding. This initiative is likely to benefit 12 crore small and marginal farmers, at an estimated cost of Rs 75,000 crore.

* Individual tax payers with income up to Rs. 5 lakh taxable income will get full tax rebate. Even those earning ₹6.5 lakh will not have to pay tax, if they invest in specified savings. The tax slabs, however, will remain unchanged and according to Goyal, an estimated three crore middle class tax payers will be benefited.

“Within almost two years, almost all assessment and verification of IT returns will be done electronically by an anonymized tax system without any intervention by tax officials,” he said.

* Further, TDS on fixed deposits and postal deposits will be exempted for interest earned up to Rs. 40,000 from Rs. 10,000 currently.

* Goyal presented the government’s proposed 10-point vision for 2030

* a next-gen infrastructure

* a Digital India

* a pollution free India that drives on electric vehicles.

* Expanding rural industrialization

* Clean Rivers with safe drinking water

* developing the coastline and harnessing the blue economy

* placing an Indian astronaut in space

* Making India self-sufficient in food, exporting food and organic farming

* Healthy India, a distress-free healthcare and comprehensive wellness system

* Maximum Governance.