Union Budget 2018 Live: Major announcements by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley

The last full-fledged budget of the Narendra Modi-led government and the first one after GST rollout is much anticipated.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley began unveiling the Union Budget 2018-19 on Thursday aiming for stronger economic growth to win over voters ahead of a national election next year while trying to maintain fiscal restraint.

To the thumping of desks from partymen, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley rose in the Lok Sabha to deliver what is likely to be the last full year budget ahead of an election that must be held by May 2019.

Here are the major announcements by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley:

01 February 2018

17:57 IST

The Finance Minister proposed to increase the digital intensity in education and move from ‘‘black board’’ to ‘‘digital board’’.

17:55 IST

Govt will initiate an integrated B.Ed. programme for teachers. We have amended the Right to Education Act to enable more than 13 lakh untrained teachers to get trained, Jaitley said.

17:54 IST

Government is implementing a comprehensive social security and protection programme to reach every household of old, widows, orphaned children, divyaang and deprived as per the Socio Economic Caste Census.

17:54 IST

Focus of the Government next year will be on providing maximum livelihood opportunities in the rural areas by spending more on livelihood, agriculture and allied activities and construction of rural infrastructure.

17:53 IST

Ground water irrigation scheme under Prime Minister Krishi Sinchai Yojna- Har Khet ko Pani will be taken up in 96 deprived irrigation districts

17:52 IST

Government is spending Rs 16000 crore Prime Minister Saubhagya Yojana for providing electricity to all households of the country. Under this scheme, four crores poor households are being provided with electricity connection free of charge.

12:49 IST

Smartphones to become costlier: 20 percent custom duty on mobile phones. Duty on some parts of television to go up py 15 percent

12:49 IST

Education and health cess to be increased from 3 percent to 4 percent

12:44 IST

Long-term capital gains exceeding Rs 1 lakh to be taxed at the rate of 10 percent

12:41 IST

Rs 1 lakh deduction for critically ill senior citizen

12:36 IST

All senior citizens can claim benefit of reduction Rs 50,000 year for any general health expenditure and health insurance premium

12:34 IST

Standard deduction of Rs 40,000 in lieu of transport and medical reimbursements for salaried employees

12:30 IST

100 percent tax deduction for the first five years to companies registered as farmer producer companies with a turnover of Rs 100 crore and above

12:29 IST

NO CHANGE IN PERSONAL INCOME TAX RATES FOR SALARIED CLASS

12:16 IST

Revised emoluments for President - Rs 5 lakh, Vice President - Rs 4 lakh and Governor - Rs 3.5 lakh

12:16 IST

Rs 80,000 crore disinvestment target for 2018-19, target for 2017-18 has been exceeded and will reach Rs 1 lakh crore

12:14 IST

Government to take all steps to eliminate use of cryptocurrencies which are being used to fund illegitimate transactions

12:13 IST

Airports Authority of India now has 124 airports, this will be expanded by 5 times. Aim of 1 billion trips a year

12:13 IST

UDAN --Ude Desh ka Aam naagrik -- scheme will connect 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads

12:13 IST

Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations has been taken up; Mumbai transport system is being expanded; suburban network of 160 km planned for Bengaluru

12:11 IST

All railways stations with more than 25,000 footfall to have escalators. All railways stations and trains to have Wi-Fi and CCTVs progressively

12:01 IST

Rs 1,48,528 crore - the capital expenditure for Railways for 2018-19

12:00 IST

Govt to contribute 12 percent of the wages as EPF in all sectors for the next three years. Contributions from women employees will be brought down from 12 percent to 8 percent

11:55 IST

Allocation of Rs 56,619 crore for SC welfare and Rs 39,135 crore for ST welfare

11:55 IST

Government to contribute 12 percent of EPF contribution for new employees in all sectors

11:51 IST

Target of Rs 3 lakh crore for lending under PM MUDRA Yojana

11:44 IST

One government medical college to for every 3 parliamentary constituencies by upgrading 24 district-level colleges

11:43 IST

Launching National Health Protection Scheme to cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families, benefiting approximately 50 crore people

11:38 IST

Rs 5 lakh per family per year for medical reimbursement, under National Health Protection Scheme

11:36 IST

Rs 1 lakh crore to be allocated over four years under scheme for revitalizing school infrastructure called RISE - Revitalizing Infrastructure in School Education

11:35 IST

8 crore free gas connections to poor families under Ujjawala scheme and 4 crore electricity connections to the poor under Saubhagya Yojana

11:29 IST

Rs 14.34 lakh crore to be spent for rural infrastructure

11:25 IST

Restructured National Bamboo Mission to be launched with an allocation of Rs 1290 crore to promote bamboo sector in a holistic manner

11:19 IST

Will issue Kisan Credit Cards

11:19 IST

We have decided to give 1.5 times the cost incurred to farmers as MSP

11:18 IST

Agri-market development fund with a corpus of Rs 2000 crore to be set up for developing agricultural markets

11:17 IST

MSP of all Kharif Crops will increase

11:15 IST

The Minimum Support Price of all crops shall be increased to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost

11:15 IST

Our government comitted to increasing farmers' income and improving farm welfare

09:39 IST

FM is expected to raise the threshold for tax deduction on the interest paid on bank deposits from current Rs 10,000

09:38 IST

Employment-intensive sectors will most likely be boosted in the Budget

09:36 IST

Small businesses may get some sops to ease pain caused to them due to chaotic rollout of the Goods and Services Tax and demonetisation

09:36 IST

Union Budget 2018 is expected to give a major push to digitization

09:35 IST

Budget 2018, among other things, will extensively look to stabilise GST in the country

09:35 IST

It is expected that Union Budget 2018 will lay emphasis on railways infrastructure development

09:34 IST

It is widely expected that common man may get some relief in income tax by way of a raise in the exemption limit from the current level of Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh per annum

09:34 IST

FM Jaitley is expected to double the medical reimbursement limit from current Rs 15,000 was to Rs 30,000 per annum.