Winning Bizness Desk

Mumbai. Country's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in her seventh consecutive Union Budget for 2024-25, underlined nine key priorities of the government, which are productivity and resilience in agriculture, employment and skilling, inclusive human resource development and social justice, manufacturing and services, urban development, energy security, infrastructure, innovation, research and development and next-generation reforms. Besides, the government gave 1.52 lakh crore rupees for agriculture and related sectors. Last year 1.25 lakh crore rupees were given, which means this time the budget for farmers was increased by 21.6% i.e. 25 thousand crore rupees. Despite the continuous demand of the farmers, no announcement was made in the budget regarding Minimum Support Price (MSP). At the same time, the amount of Kisan Samman Nidhi has also not been increased which will remain at Rs 6,000.

1) Change in new tax regime,

For those choosing the new tax regime, income up to Rs 7.75 lakh has now become tax free. In the new tax regime, now a standard deduction of Rs 75 thousand will be available instead of 50 thousand. On choosing the old tax regime, only income up to Rs 2.5 lakh will be tax free, but under section 87A of the Income Tax Act, you can save tax on income up to Rs 5 lakh.

2) Reduces Custom Duty, mobile phones and gold-silver to be cheaper

The government has broadly reduced the custom duty on 7 things and increased the duty on 2 itesm. Due to this, about 7 products can become cheaper and 2 products can become expensive. The products that will become cheaper include mobile phones, cancer medicines and gold-silver. Plastic products may become expensive.

3) Three employment-related schemes

For first-time job holders: Employees registering for the first time with EPFO will be transferred an amount equal to one month's salary (not more than Rs 15,000) in three installments. 2 crore 10 lakh youth are likely to benefit from this.

For job creation in manufacturing: In the first 4 years of employment, both the employee and the employer will get incentives according to their EPFO contribution. 30 lakh youth are likely to benefit from this scheme.

For employers: The government will reimburse employers up to Rs 3,000 per month for two years for EPFO contribution for each additional employee. 50 lakh people are expected to get additional employment from this scheme.

Budget of Rs 4.54 lakh crore for defense

Modi Govt has allocated a budget of Rs 4.54 lakh crore for defense, which is Rs 1.67 lakh crore less than the Rs 6.21 lakh crore received in the interim budget in February. Out of which, Rs 1.72 lakh crore is for capital acquisition which is 28% of the total defense budget. At the same time, Rs 92,088 crore is for the revenue expenditure of the armed forces.

Free electricity formula up to 300 units every month to one crore people

Under the PM Suryodaya Yojana, 300 units of solar electricity will be given free to more than one crore houses. This was announced in the interim budget. It was told in this budget that the solar energy generated will first go to the supply grid instead of going directly to that house

Nirmala Sitharaman informed that efforts will be made to provide employment to 20 lakh youth by the central government. In the budget speech, the Finance Minister announced financial assistance from the government for loans up to Rs 10 lakh for higher education. The finance minister also announced that increasing the participation of women in the workforce will be a priority.

What is cheaper and costlier now

Cancer drugs, Jewelry, mobile etc to be little cheaper

In her budget speech, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced an AED tax on cancer drugs. The Finance Minister said that import duty on 3 medicines has been completely removed to provide relief to drug and medical cancer patients, duty on X-ray tubes has also been reduced. After this, three cancer medicines will become cheaper in the country. Gold, silver will be cheaper as FM announced to leavy 6 percent import duty on gold and silver instead of 6.5 percent. Mobile, Mobile Spare Parts like Mobile charger prices will be reduced by 15 percent. Besides, Cancer drugs, Processing tax on steel, copper production, Lithium batteries cheap, Electric vehicles will be cheaper and Solar sets will be cheaper. Leather goods, PVC flex banner and Electric wire will be little cheaper.

What will be expensive?

As per new provisions announced in today's budget, tax burden on plastic industries will increase and therefore, plastic products will be expensive

New provisions in Tax Slab

Standard deduction up from 50 thousand to 75 thousand

Income tax free up to 3 lakhs

3 to 7 lakh income - 5 percent

7 to 10 lakh income- 10 percent

10 to 12 lakh income - 15 percent

12 to 15 lakh income - 20 percent

Income above 15 lakhs - 30 percent

Long term capital gain exemption up from 1 lakh to 1.25 lakh

The Modi-led govt has hiked the tax rate on short term capital gain in equity investment from 15% to 20%. It has been announced to increase the tax rate on long term capital gain from 10% to 12.5%. The limit of exemption for long term capital gain has been increased from 1 lakh to 1.25 lakh. Beside, Students will be given a loan of up to 10 lakh rupees for admission in institutions across the country for higher education. For this, one lakh students will get e-vouchers every year, the government will give 3% interest on the loan amount.