Customs duty increase on mobile phones to incentivise domestic value addition and promote local manufacturing and jobs.
The Budget adjusts customs policy to encourage domestic value addition by raising customs duty on mobile phones, certain mobile parts and specified television parts while reducing the duty on raw cashew to support local processing, aiming to make domestic products more competitive and to foster job creation and supply chain development.

E-assessment scheme shifts income-tax assessments to electronic mode, reducing taxpayer-officer interface and enhancing transparency.
Amendments to the income-tax statute propose notification of a scheme for assessment in electronic mode, enabling assessments, notices, and interactions to be conducted digitally to reduce direct taxpayer-officer interface and improve administrative efficiency and transparency through a nationwide roll-out following pilot expansion.

Long term capital gains tax introduced at a fixed rate, grandfathering existing gains and taxing fund distributions.
Proposal to tax Long Term Capital Gains on listed equity shares, units of equity-oriented funds and business trust units above a specified exemption threshold at 10% without indexation, with gains up to 31 January 2018 grandfathered; and to impose a 10% tax on distributed income of equity-oriented mutual funds to equalise treatment between growth and dividend funds, justified by revenue broadening and removal of a bias favoring financial asset investment.

Corporate Bond Financing: proposal to require large corporates to raise part of funding from bond markets, with regulatory reforms.
Proposal to require large corporates to source a prescribed portion of financing from the bond market, supported by RBI guidelines and SEBI consideration to deepen bond issuance and market access. Proposed reforms include lowering eligible bond rating thresholds from AA to A, reforming stamp duty on securities via amendments to the Indian Stamp Act, establishing a unified IFSC financial services regulator, and monetising selected public assets through InvITs and ReITs with IIFCL support.

Budgetary support to defence prioritized; industry-friendly defence production policy to boost domestic manufacturing and private participation.
Ensuring adequate budgetary support to the defence sector is declared a government priority to support modernization and indigenous production. The Government opened private investment and liberalised foreign direct investment in defence production, will develop two defence industrial production corridors, and will issue an industry friendly Defence Production Policy 2018 to promote domestic production across public sector, private sector and MSMEs.

Ease of doing business reforms deepened through targeted state actions and a national single window logistics portal to integrate stakeholders.
Implementation of a national programme of business reforms to deepen the ease of doing business by operationalising 372 targeted simplification actions across States, with progress evaluated by user feedback. Concurrently, the Government is expanding digital single window and e governance infrastructure: a National Logistics Portal as a single window marketplace, a Central Public Procurement Portal and Government E Marketplace for unified procurement, and a web based Government Integrated Financial Management Information System for financial administration.

Fiscal Deficit target set as operational parameter; Debt Rule adoption to reduce debt-to-GDP ratio in budget framework.
The Budget anchors fiscal management on a specified fiscal deficit target to be financed through borrowings, with increased expenditure to support priority sectors; the Government accepts key FRBM Committee recommendations including adoption of a Debt Rule and measures in the Finance Bill to reduce the Central Government's debt-to-GDP ratio and to use the Fiscal Deficit target as the principal operational parameter.

Insurance coverage expansion under social schemes reaches millions; government commits to extend coverage to all poor households.
Government social protection measures expanded insurance and savings coverage: a life insurance scheme with nominal premium access for enrolled families and a personal accident insurance scheme offering standardized cover; the government will extend these protections to all poor households and use basic banking accounts to deliver microinsurance and unorganised sector pension schemes. A child-focused small-savings vehicle for female children has grown to over one crore accounts, and the administration plans to bring all basic accounts into the inclusion framework to facilitate welfare service delivery.

Earmarked allocation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes increased, strengthening targeted budgetary provision for welfare programmes.
Earmarked allocation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes under central budgetary programmes has been increased across successive fiscal years, reporting higher reserved funding across hundreds of programmes and further upward revisions proposed in the budget estimates for the coming year as a central-government financing decision to strengthen programme-level resource targeting for social welfare and development measures.

Exemption of interest income for senior citizens increased, with TDS relief and enhanced health and critical illness deductions.
The budget increases the exemption of interest income on deposits for senior citizens and removes the TDS requirement for such interest, covering bank, post office, fixed and recurring deposits. It raises the cap on deductions for health insurance premiums and general medical expenditure for senior citizens and standardises a higher deduction limit for medical expenditure relating to critical illnesses. The government also extends the senior citizen assured-return scheme and raises its per-person investment ceiling, yielding a material tax benefit to senior citizens.

Standard deduction introduced replacing transport and medical exemptions, extending deductible relief to salaried taxpayers and pensioners.
A standard deduction of Rs. 40,000 is proposed in lieu of exemptions for transport allowance and miscellaneous medical reimbursements for salaried taxpayers and pensioners; enhanced transport allowance remains for differently abled persons and medical reimbursement for hospitalization continues.

National Health Protection Scheme provides government-funded secondary and tertiary hospitalisation cover for eligible poor and vulnerable families.
The document describes two Ayushman Bharat initiatives: Health and Wellness Centres to strengthen primary care with comprehensive services, free essential medicines and diagnostics and private adoption options; and the National Health Protection Scheme, a government-funded programme providing secondary and tertiary hospitalisation coverage to poor and vulnerable families, supported by funds for implementation and linked to upgradation of district hospitals into medical colleges.

Holistic education policy expands pre nursery to Class XII, boosting research initiatives and targeted tribal residential schools.
Holistic education policy extends from pre-nursery to Class XII with a district-wise quality improvement strategy and increased digitalisation. The RISE initiative channels central investment over four years into research and infrastructure in leading institutions, complemented by the PMRF scheme to support top B.Tech students into Ph.D. programmes and an integrated B.Ed. programme for in-service teacher training.

Unique enterprise ID to be assigned, enabling institutional reforms, insurance consolidation and market listings to improve public service delivery.
The Government will assign a unique identification to every enterprise, restructure Food Corporation of India capital to raise equity and long term debt, streamline budgeting for metro venture equity and debt, list 14 Central Public Sector Enterprises, merge three public sector general insurers into a single entity for subsequent listing, and formulate a comprehensive Gold Policy including regulated gold exchanges and a revamped Gold Monetization Scheme for hassle free gold deposit accounts.

Disinvestment strategy expands strategic sales and ETFs while reforms enable bank recapitalisation and liquidity instruments.
The Budget advances a major disinvestment programme including strategic sales and ETF capital raising, alongside a bank recapitalisation scheme to expand public sector bank lending. Proposed statutory amendments transfer National Housing Bank equity to the Government, consolidate small savings statutes, create an Uncollateralized Deposit Facility in the RBI Act for liquidity management, and amend securities and depositories laws to streamline adjudication and provide penalties.

Reduced corporate tax rate expanded to cover nearly all small companies, increasing their investible surplus under the new threshold.
A budgetary measure reduces the corporate tax rate to 25% for companies whose turnover did not exceed the prescribed threshold in the relevant financial year, extending the lower-rate bracket to the vast majority of filing companies while leaving only companies above the threshold in the higher-rate slab; the concession is presented with an estimated revenue forgone for the budget year.

MSME credit support and tax relief expand investible surplus, boosting formal employment and incentives for women employees.
The Budget allocates dedicated funds for MSME credit support, capital and interest subsidy and innovation, couples reduced corporate tax rates for smaller companies to boost investible surplus, and proposes linking TReDS to GSTN and revamping online loan sanctioning for faster bank decisions; it also reviews MUDRA refinancing eligibility to strengthen NBFC refinancing and lending.

Railway capital investment allocation advances network capacity, rolling stock procurement, station modernization, electrification and safety upgrades.
Railway capital expenditure for 2018-19 is directed to capacity creation and modernization through track expansion, gauge conversion to Broad Gauge, electrification commissioning, track renewal, and construction of Dedicated Freight Corridors. The plan includes procurement of wagons, coaches and locomotives, accelerated goods shed and private siding upgrades, station redevelopment across 600 major stations with escalators, wi-fi and CCTVs, elimination of unmanned level crossings, urban suburban network expansion, and establishment of an institute for high-speed rail manpower training.

Infrastructure allocation increase prioritises transport, urban development and digital infrastructure with financing and regulatory measures.
The Union Budget 2018 19 increases infrastructure allocation with priority funding for transport (highways, airports, regional connectivity), urban programmes (Smart Cities, AMRUT, HRIDAY, tourist and heritage upgrades), and digital and telecom infrastructure (expanded Digital India funding, Cyber Physical Systems mission, telecom augmentation, public wifi and BharatNet). Financing measures include leveraging specialized finance entities and monetisation structures like TOT and InvITs. The Budget also indicates regulatory aims to prevent crypto asset misuse and to explore blockchain for the digital economy.

Sanitation-driven waste-to-energy scheme launches to convert farm waste into compost and renewable fuels for rural benefit.
Launch of a national rural waste-to-resource initiative under GOBAR-DHAN to convert cattle dung and farm solid waste into compost, biogas and bio-CNG as a sanitation and resource-recovery mechanism supporting open-defecation-free objectives and rural energy and soil-health outcomes.