1. The Government is firm on its course towards fiscal consolidation without compromising on its development agenda. 3.5% fiscal deficit is targeted for FY 2017.

2. Total allocation for Agriculture, Farmers’ welfare and Irrigation set at ₹ 47,912 cr, which is nearly twice the allocation of the previous year.

3. New Health Protection scheme will provide health cover up to ₹ 1 lakh per family and additional ₹ 30,000 for senior citizens.

4. Free LPG connections will be provided in the name of woman member of a family to 1.5 cr BPL households in 2016-17 and to continue for two more years to cover 5 cr households in total.

5. Massive increase in public spending on infrastructure to ₹ 2.21 lakh cr, an increase of 22.5% over the previous year.

6. Higher Education Financing Authority set up, with an initial capital base of ₹ 1,000 cr to promote higher education. In addition, 10 public and 10 private institutions to emerge as world-class Teaching and Research Institutions.

7. Promoting a tax-friendly regime and minimizing hassles due to litigation through a New Dispute Resolution Scheme with low or zero penalties. Ongoing tax cases can be settled with ease.

8. Increased relief for middle-class tax-payers by raising the ceiling of tax rebate under Section 87A to ₹ 5,000 for individuals with income less than ₹ 5 lakhs and by raising the limit of deduction of rent paid under section 80GG to ₹ 60,000.

9. Directly providing financial and other subsidies benefits to people who deserve them by enacting a new law and developing a social security platform using Aadhar.

10. Boosting formal sector employment by provisioning ₹ 1,000 cr towards contributing 8.33% on behalf of all new employees enrolling in EPFO for the first three years of their employment.

11. Simplified and pro-market tax measures such as laying out the roadmap of phasing out of exemptions under Corporate Taxes, abolishing small cesses, providing complete pass through of income-tax to securitization trusts and reducing period of obtaining long-term capital gains treatment for unlisted companies to three years.

12. Promoting entrepreneurship by increasing the turnover limit under Presumptive taxation scheme to ₹ 2 cr, targeting to disburse loans worth ₹ 1.8 lakh cr under PM Mudra Yojana and providing 100% deduction of profits for 3 out of 5 years for start-ups.

13. Facilitating Affordable Housing by 100% tax exemption for profits from small projects, not subjecting distribution REITs and INVITs to Dividend Distribution Tax and encouraging small first-time home buyers by deducting ¬additional interest of ₹ 50,000.

14. Reducing black money through a scheme to declare undisclosed income by paying 45% tax in a given compliance window.

15. Strengthening the financial sector by allocating ₹ 25,000 cr towards recapitalising Public Sector Banks (PSBs), listing Government-owned General Insurance companies, and spelling out a roadmap for consolidating PSBs.

Fiscal consolidation guides budget measures, with tax relief, dispute resolution scheme, and expanded social protections. The Budget advances fiscal consolidation while increasing allocations for agriculture, infrastructure and health, introducing a new health protection scheme and expanded LPG coverage, and directing subsidies through an Aadhaar-linked social security platform. Tax measures include a dispute resolution scheme with reduced penalties, increased middle-income relief, phasing out certain corporate exemptions, presumptive taxation and start-up incentives. Financial-sector actions comprise bank recapitalisation, insurance listings and consolidation roadmaps, alongside measures to promote affordable housing, formal employment and a compliance window for declaring undisclosed income.