Indian Union Budget 2019 Highlights:

On 1st February 2019, Finance Minister Piyush Goyal presented the Union Budget in Lok Sabha.

• Individual taxpayers with annual income up to `.5 lakh to get full tax rebate.
• Individuals with gross income up to `.6.5 lakh will not need to pay any tax if they make investments in provident funds and prescribed equities.
• Standard tax deduction for salaried persons raised from `.40,000 to `.50,000.
• TDS threshold on rental income raised from `.1.8 lakh to `.2.4 lakh.
• Gratuity limit increased from `.10 lakh to `.30 lakh.
•  Benefit of rollover of capital tax gains to be increased from investment in one residential house to that in two residential houses, for a taxpayer having capital gains up to `.2 crore; can be exercised once in a lifetime.
• Benefits under Sec 80(i)BA being extended for one more year, for all housing projects approved till end of 2019-2020.
• Businesses with less than `.5 crore annual turnover, comprising over 90% of GST payers, will be allowed to return quarterly returns.
• 2% interest subvention on loan of 1 crore for GST registered MSME units.
• Within almost two years, almost all assessment and verification of IT returns will be done electronically by an anonymized tax system without any intervention by tax officials.
• 2% interest subvention to farmers pursuing animal husbandry and fisheries.
• Mega Pension Yojana, namely Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan, to provide assured monthly pension of `.3000 per month, with contribution of `.100 per month, for workers in unorganised sector after 60 years of age.
• Under Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, `.6000 per year for each farmer, in three installments, to be transferred directly to farmers' bank accounts, for farmers with less than 2 hectares land holding.

Fiscal deficit has been bought down to 3.4%; CAD (current account deficit) likely to be 2.5% of GDP this year.