Interim Budget 2019 – 20

The budget for the session of 2019 – 20 was presented and elaborated by then-acting finance minister Mr Piyush Goyal on the first of February. The interim 2019 budget date was 1st February, it included reforms regarding the middle class, working-class and farmers, but the changes were not as big as expected. 

Since there were no major reforms, it did not affect any of the country’s multinational firms and overseas investments. The interim budget was heavily focused on taxes, income tax concessions and schemes for supporting small businesses to lure the public in since the general election was just around the corner. India’s government’s 2019 budget date was proposed to spend 27.84 lakh crore rupees in 2019 – 20, and interest payments are Rs. 6,65,061 crore rupees.

Interim Budget

The government proposes an interim 2019 budget date when the government is not prepared to present the full-fledged budget for the current session, so it comes up with a mild and less affecting budget. The interim budget does not include any major changes in anything, for the interim budget, the government also refrains from proposing any new scheme. 

Aside from that, an interim budget is presented mostly before or during the general election period and contains almost every quality a full budget plan has. Since an interim budget is given only temporarily, there isn’t much discussion in the parliament.

Key Points of The Budget For The Year 2019

The day was Friday, and it was the first date of February when the interim budget for 2019 was presented by acting finance minister Piyush Goyal at 11 in the morning. The government of India chose to have an expenditure of 27.84 lakh crore rupees for the 2019 budget date. The major key points of the budget for 2019 are listed below

• Exempted from income tax if the annual income is below 5 lakh rupees
• Individuals with a salary of up to 6.5 lakh rupees are exempted from paying taxes if they invest in prescribed equities and provident funds
• Before the 2019 budget date was employed, the standard tax deduction started from the 40,000 monthly salaries, but it has been raised to 50,000
• TDS for the interest on post offices and banks were also raised from 10,000 to 40,000 rupees
• TDS for the income coming from rentals have gone up from 1.8 lakh rupees to 2.4 lakh rupees
• Processing of income tax returns will be done within 24 hours of filing
• The decision to make income tax returns electronically in two years
• A semi-high-speed train named Vande Bharat will be launched and operational soon.
• For having a second property, the exemption of section 54 will be available only if your capital gains are below rupees two crores. However, you can only avail yourself once in a lifetime
• At least one lakh villages will be digitised in five years
• For the MSME sector to get loans, a scheme was proposed to get a business loan of up to 1 crore rupees within an hour
• Small and medium enterprises must file quarterly GST returns if their income exceeds five crore rupees
• Twenty-five per cent of sourcing for government projects will be from micro, small and medium enterprises, and only three per cent will be from women-owned businesses.
• Gratuity payment increased from 10 lakh rupees to 20 lakh rupees
• A minimum pension of 1000 rupees monthly is provided for minimum wage labourers.
• The government proposed to build a new and separate department for fisheries and their business
• 2% interest on money granted to animal husbandry farmers if natural disasters hit them.
• The government set up a scheme called Rashtriya Kamdhenu Ayog for the genetic enhancement of cows and the betterment of their resources
• The maximum selling price was increased up to 1.5 times the production cost for all the 22 crops
• Artificial intelligence portal to be in development soon
• The government of India’s interest payments are Rs. 6,65,061 crore rupees

Conclusion

The government of India decides the budget for a particular session in India through the discussions of parliament members. Still, since the general election was upon the government, an interim budget was proposed for the 2019 – 20 session. The budget for 2019 – 20 presented by the finance department was focused on the tax cuts for the salaried person, the MSME sector, and women’s empowerment through the support of women-owned businesses and farmers. 2019’s interim budget was neither overwhelming nor underwhelming.