With UP elections round the corner, the BJP Government is coming up with the Budget 2017.The Railways and the general budget will be presented together for the first time.
After the demonetisation effect, there are expectations that finance minister Arun Jaitley will announce tax rebates and incentives to encourage transactions through cards and digital means. Some experts believe that the finance minister may also announce measures to tax cash withdrawals from banks above a threshold. It could be above Rs 50000.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley is widely expected to announce Goods and Services Tax (GST)’s implementation schedule in the upcoming budget 2017-18.
Arun Jaitley may raise tax breaks offered on money parked in fixed deposits, insurance premium and mutual funds from Rs 1,50,000 to Rs 2,00,000 a year under the popular Section 80C scheme The government is expected to cut the corporate income tax rates by 1.25-1.5 per cent to 28.75-28.5 per cent in the budget 2017, but will likely remove exemptions that allow companies to cut down on their effective tax payments.
A combined budget could imply that the Indian Railways can avoid setting aside funds for dividends of about Rs 10,000 crore to the government every year. But passengers may have to shell out more for travelling by train as the railway ministry may impose a specific cess on train tickets to fund the Rs 1.20 lakh crore safety fund..
There are expectations that finance minister Arun Jaitley will announce a series of measures to minimise the demonetisation pain for farmers in Budget 2017. The November 8 decision have left farmers with no cash to buy seeds in the middle of the sowing season.
The government may propose a bundle of tax incentives for the labour-intensive leather, gems and jewellery sectors as part of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s signature “Make in India” initiative to boost manufacturing, create jobs and revive exports.
The finance minister may put forward a proposal for creating a favourable environment for foreign direct investors (FDI), venture capitalists (VCs), private equity (PE) firms and angel investors as a part the broad strategy to ease fund flow to start-ups and small businesses.
The Union Budget 2017 may have some good news for the start-ups too. Finance minister Arun Jaitley is expected to announce initiatives to empower the country’s start-ups, including widening of the tax-free regime to five years from three years and faster procedural clearances.
