Income tax rate for individual assessees with income of Rs 2.5-5 lakh was brought down to 5 per cent, from the 10 per cent earlier. Threshold limit for audit of business entities that opt for the presumptive income scheme was raised to Rs 2 crore from Rs 1 crore. In the road sector, Budget allocation for highways increased from to Rs 64,900 crore in 2017-18, Rs 57,976 crore in BE 2016-17. Under the Maternity Benefit Scheme, Rs 6,000 each will be transferred directly to the bank accounts of pregnant women who undergo institutional delivery and vaccinate their children. A good 12 months are gone since Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stood to read out his 2017 Budget speech.

Source: Economic Times February 01, 2018 04:07 UTC