BUDGET 2017: HIGHLIGHTS

Here are the highlights of the budget speech by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley:

Uncertainty around commodity prices, especially around crude oil, one of the major challenges.

Demonetisation impact on economy is not likely to spill over into the next fiscal,

* Three major initiatives

- Advance the date of budget presentation to prevent vote-on-account budget, to enable proper planning and evaluation.- Merger of railway and general budget - A good bye to- Do Away with plan and non-plan classification - to facilitate optimum allocation of funds.

* Transform, Energise and Clean India (TEC) are the three major focal areas

Rural Thurst

Spend more in rural areas, infra, poverty alleviation, while maintaining fiscal prudence as guiding principle of Budget

With better monsoon, agriculture is expected to grow at 4.1% in current year, says Arun Jaitley.Govt will set up mini lab in Krishi Vigyan Kendras for soil testing.Rs 9000 crore for crop insurance scheme.A dedicated micro irrigation fund will be set up for NABARD with Rs 5,000 cr initial corpus.Govt to integrate farmers who grow fruits with agro processing units.Long-term Irrigation Fund corpus at Nabard to go up to Rs 40000 crore from Rs 20000 crore.Dairy processing infrastructure fund will be set up under NABARD, with fund of Rs 8,000 crore.50,000 gram panchayats to be made poverty free by 2019.Cabinet extends tenure of loans under Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana from 15 to 20 yearsBudget allocation to MNREGA increased to a record Rs 48,000 crore for 2017-18, from Rs 37,000 crore in 2016-17Budgetary allocation to PM gramin awaas yojna to beRs 23000 crore in 2017-18. 1 crore households to be brought out of poverty under Antodya Scheme. Rs 27,000 cr on to be spend on PMGSY; 1 cr houses to be completed by 2017-18 for houseless.Target of agriculture credit fixed at Rs 10 lakh cr in 2017-18Rs 9,000 cr higher allocation for payment of sugarcane arrears133-km road per day constructred under Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana as against 73-km in 2011-14The allocation for rural agriculture and allied sectors in 2017-18 is a record Rs 1,81,223 croreThe allocation for rural agriculture and allied sectors in 2017-18 is a record Rs 1,81,223 croreUnder BharatNet, by 2017, high-speed broadband to reach 1.5 lakh gram panchayats