Choice between EPF and NPS introduced, with optional employee EPF contribution and alternative health insurance option.
Employees will be given an option between the Employees Provident Fund and the New Pension Scheme, and lower-earning employees may opt out of employee EPF contributions without reducing the employer's contribution. Similar optionality is proposed for health coverage, allowing choice between statutory insurance and an IRDA-recognized health insurance product, with implementation to follow amending legislation after stakeholder consultation.

Budget allocations expand social sector funding and top up the Nirbhaya Fund while boosting digital and industrial infrastructure.
Budget allocations for 2015-16 earmark funding for Education (including Mid Day Meals), Health, Rural Development (including MGNREGA), Housing and Urban Development, Women and Child Development, Water Resources and Namami Gange, and increase the Nirbhaya Fund to support women's security, advocacy and awareness. The Budget also provides initial capital for the National Optical Fibre Network to extend village connectivity and for DMIC corridors and select industrial regions, with additional funds to be provided as expenditure picks up.

Sector neutral financial redressal agency to be established to address grievances across financial service providers and strengthen consumer protection.
A task force is proposed to design a sector neutral financial redressal agency to handle grievances against all financial service providers, aiming to strengthen consumer protection and impose consistent redressal standards across banking, insurance, securities, and other financial sectors. Concurrently, work on task forces for a Financial Data Management Centre, a Financial Sector Appellate Tribunal, a Resolution Corporation, and a Public Debt Management Agency is progressing, and suggestions on the Indian Financial Code are being reviewed for future parliamentary consideration.

Public Debt Management Agency consolidates external and domestic government debt to deepen the bond market and promote investment.
Creation of a Public Debt Management Agency centralising external and domestic government debt management into one institution to deepen the domestic bond market and promote investment, initiated via the national budget as the first step toward bond market development.

Act East policy promotes manufacturing hubs in CMLV through SPVs to catalyse Indian private sector investment.
Establishment of manufacturing hubs in CMLV countries under the Act East policy will be facilitated by a project development company through separate special purpose vehicles to catalyse Indian private sector investment in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam.

Priority lending to SC/ST enterprises under a new MUDRA Bank to refinance microfinance and expand credit access.
The Union Budget proposes establishment of the Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank as a refinance and funding vehicle for small, informal enterprises, with a dedicated corpus and separate credit guarantee corpus to support lending through intermediary lenders and micro finance institutions; lending under this arrangement will prioritise enterprises owned by Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to promote inclusive growth by expanding access to formal credit.

Composite caps replace FDI and FPI distinction, simplifying foreign investment rules and permitting AIF investments.
Elimination of the regulatory distinction between foreign portfolio and foreign direct investment, replaced by composite caps to simplify foreign investment procedures; sectors already on the automatic route remain unaffected; foreign investments into Alternate Investment Funds are permitted to broaden capital sources and attract inflows.

Surcharge on high income taxpayers expanded and increased for companies; education cesses retained, altering post tax liability.
The budget proposes a revised surcharge regime applying to high-income individuals and various non-corporate entities, higher surcharges on domestic companies as income rises, differentiated surcharge rates for foreign companies, and an increased surcharge on tax payable in respect of dividend distribution and share buyback; education cess and secondary and higher education cess are retained.

Trade Receivables Discounting System to enable invoice financing for MSME liquidity while a comprehensive bankruptcy code reforms insolvency resolution.
An electronic Trade Receivables Discounting System (TReDS) will be established to facilitate financing of MSME trade receivables by enabling discounting of invoices from corporate and other buyers through multiple financiers to improve MSME liquidity. Separately, a Comprehensive Bankruptcy Code will replace SICA and BIFR to provide legal certainty, speed, alignment with global standards, and enhanced judicial capacity for insolvency resolution.

Gold Monetisation Scheme to replace existing schemes, allowing depositors interest and jewellers access to metal loans.
The Budget proposes a Gold Monetisation Scheme replacing existing Gold Deposit and Gold Metal Loan Schemes, allowing depositors to earn interest in metal accounts, enabling jewellers to obtain loans in their metal accounts, and permitting banks and dealers to monetize gold. It also proposes a Sovereign Gold Bond carrying fixed interest and redeemable in terms of gold face value, and the development of an Indian Gold Coin to reduce demand for foreign coins and recycle domestic gold.

Prohibition on cash advances in property transactions imposes equal penalties and strengthens anti-money laundering measures.
The Budget 2015-16 prohibits acceptance or repayment of cash advances for immovable property transactions at or above the statutory threshold and imposes an equal monetary penalty for contraventions. It proposes treating false customs declarations as a predicate offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and announces a comprehensive new law on black money abroad featuring non-compoundable penal sanctions, mandatory foreign asset return filing, taxation of undisclosed foreign income at the maximum marginal rate, and amendments to PMLA and foreign exchange law to enable enforcement.

Agricultural credit target expanded to bolster rural refinance funds and ease access to credit for small and marginal farmers.
The Budget sets a national agricultural credit target for the year and earmarks specific allocations to four rural credit facilities-the Rural Infrastructure Development Fund corpus, a Long Term Rural Credit Fund, a Short Term Cooperative Rural Credit Refinance Fund, and a Short Term Regional Rural Bank refinance fund-to strengthen short and long term lending capacity and channel refinance support to cooperative and regional rural banks serving small and marginal farmers.

Customs duty adjustments to incentivise domestic manufacturing, with targeted exemptions and selective tariff increases.
Budget measures adjusted customs and excise duties to promote domestic manufacturing: Basic Customs Duty reductions and nil-rating for specified inputs and components, full or partial exemptions of CVD and SAD for certain manufacturing raw materials, targeted SAD reductions on metal scrap and LED inputs to address CENVAT credit accumulation, and excise duty restructuring on selected goods; simultaneous tariff increases imposed on metallurgical coke, iron and steel products and commercial vehicles to protect import-competing sectors.

Simplification of tax procedures: higher tribunal thresholds and rationalized indirect tax penalties to ease compliance and disputes.
Proposed simplification of tax procedures includes raising monetary thresholds for single member tribunal hearings, rationalizing indirect tax penalties to promote compliance, allowing digitally signed invoices and electronic records for excise and service tax assesses, extending the time limit for CENVAT credit, revising excise and service tax rates and registrations, and implementing Tax Administration Reform Commission recommendations. Substantive changes replace the wealth tax with an additional surcharge on very high incomes, clarify indirect transfer provisions including dividend treatment by foreign companies, increase the transfer pricing applicability threshold, rationalize MAT for certain investors, permit full 80G deductions for specified donations, and allow seized cash to be adjusted against tax liability.

Expanded tax deductions for individual savings and health expenses, and Sukanya Samriddhi withdrawals declared fully tax-exempt.
The Budget expands deductions and exemptions for individuals: health insurance and medical expenditure deductions are increased, enhanced allowances are provided for seniors and specified diseases, disability deductions are raised with a higher threshold for severe disability, pension contribution limits and additional 80CCD relief are increased, and investment in the Sukanya Samriddhi Scheme qualifies under section 80C with all payments from the scheme exempt from tax.

Tax reform: phased corporate rate cuts and tougher anti black money laws to spur investment and fiscal consolidation.
The document outlines a fiscal strategy combining phased fiscal consolidation with increased public investment, a phased corporate tax rate reduction and exemption rationalisation, enactment of a comprehensive anti black money law (criminalising concealment of foreign assets and reinforcing FEMA and PMLA powers), GST implementation, strengthened tax administration via data integration and reporting, and institutional reforms including NIIF, PDMA, MUDRA Bank, and measures to improve ease of doing business and expand social security through the JAM architecture.

Finance Bill 2015: new tax rules for investment funds, expanded withholding, surcharges, cess and a public debt agency.
The Bill inserts section 9A excluding fund management activity by eligible fund managers from constituting business connection in India for qualifying foreign investment funds subject to eligibility, investment limits and reporting; creates Chapter XII FB (section 115UB) to treat income of investment funds as arising to unit holders in the same nature and proportion and imposes filing, withholding and reporting obligations on funds and payors, alongside penalties for non compliance.

Deductibility of donations: contributions to designated environmental funds become fully deductible under section 80G, expanding tax incentives.
Donations (other than CSR contributions) to the Swachh Bharat Kosh by residents and non-residents and to the Clean Ganga Fund by residents are made 100% deductible under section 80G of the Income-tax Act; the budget also introduces a Swachh Bharat cess on services up to a capped rate, increases the clean energy cess on coal to fund environmental initiatives, proposes service tax exemption for common effluent treatment plants, raises excise on certain polymer sacks, and extends customs and excise concessions for electric and hybrid vehicles.

Effective allocation of natural resources and financial inclusion prioritized to expand access and improve benefit delivery.
Priority policy directives emphasize Effective allocation of natural resources through auctioning coal and minerals and advancing Financial Inclusion to broaden access to financial services and deliver benefits more efficiently, alongside administrative reforms to improve government efficiency and promote an Ease of Doing Business environment.

Service tax expansion broadens taxable services and subsumes education cesses, removing several sectoral exemptions and expanding excise coverage.
Budget measures broaden the indirect tax base by increasing the Service Tax rate and subsuming education cesses, expanding taxable services (including access to amusement and job work for alcohol production), and making most government services to business taxable unless exempt. The General Exemption for service tax is tightened by withdrawing or limiting exemptions for airport and port original works, performing artists, specified food transportation, certain agent and distributor services, public telephone services, and a commission agent exemption for foreign agents to exporters. Excise duty is imposed on specified packaged dairy and nut products with differential CENVAT treatment.