In the Union Budget 2017 speech, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that the cash transactions above 3 lakh rupees will not be allowed. Government announced this measures to curb corruption and black money in the economy.
Jaitley also said that India is mainly a tax non-compliant economy and it puts pressure on tax payers.
“Nayi duniya hai, naya daur hai, nayi hai umang, Kuchh thay pehle ke tareeke, to kuchh hai aaj ke rang dhang. Roshni aake andheron se jo takraai hai, Kaale dhan ko bhi badalna pada aaj apna rang, Arun Jaitley added.”
Earlier while cracking down on funding of political parties, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley asserted that the maximum donation that a party can accept as a cash donation is Rs 2000. He added that political parties will be entitled to receive donations by cheque or in the digital mode from their donors.
Here are the other key announcements made by the Finance Minister in the Union Budget 2017:
- Overall approach while making the Budget was to spend more in rural areas, infrastructure & poverty alleviation with fiscal prudence.
- Budget contains 3 major reforms:
– First advancing the Budget date to February 1
– Merger of the Rail Budget with Union Budget bringing Railways to the centrestage
– Done away with plan and non-plan expenditure - 3.5 crore youth to be trained under the livelihood promotion programme Sankalp
- 5000 additional medical PG seats to be allotted in 2017
- Two new AIIMS for Jharkhand and Gujarat
- Aim to make 50,000 Gram Panchayat poverty free
- For benefit of women and children, allocation across all schemes stepped up from 1,56,528 cr to 1,84,632 cr
- Aadhar based smart cards to be issued for senior citizens says FM
- Railway related state-run companies like IRCON and IRCTC to be listed on stock exchanges
- Unmanned railway level crossings to be eliminated by 2020
- Telecom sector is an important sector for us. Allotting Rs 10,000 crore for BharatNet
- Promotion of #DigitalEconomy an integral part of strategy to clean up system and weed out corruption
- 125 lakh people have adopted the BHIM app. Two more schemes are being brought to encourage people to use the app.
- Maximum cash donation any party can receive will be Rs 2000 from one source
- Surcharge of 10% for those whose annual income is Rs 50 lakh to 1 crore
