Highlights of Union Budget 2016

Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday presented the Union Budget 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha. Here are the highlights of the budget 2016.

• Lower corporate IT rate for next financial year of relatively small enterprises companies with turnovers not exceeding 5Cr
• Limited tax compliance window from Jun 1 - Sep 30 for declaring undisclosed income at 45% incl. surcharge and penalties
• Govt to introduce bill to amend Companies Act for ease of doing business; to enable registration of cos. in a day
• 100% deduction on profits for start-ups for 3 out of first 5 years
• Incentives for new manufacturing companies and relatively small enterprise companies
• Rs 1,000 crore allocated for new EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) scheme
• No changes have been made to existing income tax slabs
• will pay EPF contribution of 8.33% for all new employees for first three years
• Suitable changes to be made in customs and excise duty rates to boost Make In India
• Target of disbursement under MUDRA increased to 1,80,000 crore
• Scheme to get Rs.500 cr for promoting entrepreneurship among SC/ST
• 10 public and 10 private educational institutions to be made world-class.
• Digital repository for all school leaving certificates and diplomas. Rs. 1,000 crore for higher education financing
• 1,700 crore for 1500 multi-skill development centres
• 62 new navodaya vidyalayas to provide quality education
• Digital literacy scheme to be launched to cover 6 crore additional rural households
• National Skill Development Mission has imparted training to 76 lakh youth. 1500 Multi-skill training institutes to be set up
• Deduction for rent paid will be raised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000 to benefit those living in rented houses
• Additional exemption of Rs. 50,000 for housing loans up to Rs. 35 lakh, provided cost of house is not above Rs. 50 lakh
• Service tax exempted for housing construction of houses less than 60 sq. m
• Excise duty raised from 10 to 15 per cent on tobacco products other than beedis
• 100 per cent FDI in marketing of food products produced and marketed in India