GET YOUR FIGURES RIGHT:-CAs CAN FACE SEVEN YEARS IN JAIL

Chartered accountants in India can now face up to seven years in jail if they are found to be guilty of instigating and abating benami transactions. This notification comes under the new Benami Act 2016, which was introduced in November last year.On November 1 last year, just before a week of demonetization, the Government amended the 28-year-old Benami Act 1988 to introduce a new act called ‘The Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Act, 2016. Under this act, those who have found to have illegally ‘instigated’ or ‘’abated others in illegal cash conversions or deposits to other accounts, will also face the fury of the law.

Talking about the new law, sources in the finance ministry said that the law will be further enacted upon once the state elections are over. A senior official of the Finance Ministry told DNA on condition of anonymity. “Let the state elections be over. We have consolidated an action plan based on thousands of inputs from phone calls to digital footprints. We will hit hard against those people who continue to defy the fight against black money, especially during demonetization.”

Tax department officials said that so far they have collected each and every detail of 18 lakh

suspect persons whose cash transactions do not appear to be in line with the tax payer’s profile. The Department says that during its probe it has also discovered so-called advisers who have played a crucial role in the dubious transactions which number over one crore in total. This data, officials said, are based on the first phase of operations conducted during November 9 to December 30, 2016, to discover large cash deposits. Other operations are likely to be conducted soon.

Department sources also said that they have proof of connivance among bankers, CAs, and  jewellers to exchange old notes via dubious companies or through other accounts which include the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan accounts. In fact, sources say these people have often deposited cash in the accounts of their driver, housemaid or relatives. Such people and any other persons involved like CAs will start receiving calls and notices for alleged dodgy advice in the second week of March. Apart from these measures, the government has already instituted action against CAs if they knowingly falsify or provide incorrect information while rendering their professional service. The recent Budget has already proposed Rs 10,000 penalty against CAs for wrong certification and reports.

If an accountant or a merchant banker furnishes incorrect information in a report or certificate under any provisions of the Act or the rules made thereafter, the Assessing Officer or the Commissioner (Appeals) may direct him to pay a sum of ten thousand rupees for each such report or certificate by way of penalty.

The role of the chartered accountant has already been called into question by the Controller and Auditor General (CAG) over the last few years. However, the statutory regulator for chartered accountants — The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) — have countered CAG’s claims. Sources say that CAG has had not seen a single report of negligence against any Chartered Accountant by assessing officers to the ICAI. At the same time, ICAI has also alerted its members to keep their professional integrity intact. Speaking about the new law, former president of ICAI Amarjit Chopra said, “Any professional either CAs or anybody if they instigate Benami Transaction then they should be punished. But latest penalty provision against CAs is not a fair practice because our Institute has a strong Disciplinary Mechanism and there is no need for such provision.” ICAI members refused to officially comment on the government’s latest move.

CAs on Government Radar

1. CAs could be jailed up to seven years if proved to help in instigating for or abatement of any Benami transaction.

2. Budget 2017 has proposed—Rs 10,000 penalty against CAs for wrong certification and reports.

What some CAs claim

"This Act will give unbridled powers to Assessing Officers to threaten CAs even for no fault on their part. Invariably, in every case where audited books are rejected, such penalty would be imposed. It may be used as a tool for many unwanted purposes," said a senior CA official on condition of anonymity.

FAQs

What is a Benami Transaction?

This is a kind of transaction where the assets are not in the name of person who pays for the assets. Benami could be in cash, property or any transaction, tangible or intangible, movable or immovable could fall under Benami transaction. Gift are not a Benami transaction unless you have the proof and source of income.

Who is a Benamidar?

Benamidar is a person or a fictitious person, in whose name the Benami assets has been transferred, in order to conceal the real owner.

Who is a Beneficiary?

A beneficiary is a person, whether his identity is known or not, has invested the black money  in the name of Benamidar.

THE MAN WHO CRACKED THE Rs 3,700 CRORE ONLINE SCAM

With just 10 detectives under his leadership and in about three weeks' time, Senior Superintendent of Police of Uttar Pradesh's Special Task Force Amit Pathak cracked an online digital racket that swindled 600,000 people and is now worth Rs 3,700 crore and counting. 

Call it 'digital marketing', or 'get-paid-for-likes' scam, the fact is high-heeled, well-educated scammers, suave in their use of technology, social media and a solid grip on the greed factor of the masses that works behind the success of such schemes, a computer scientist from NOIDA (North Okhla Industrial Development Authority), UP, which is also within kissing distance of the national capital, hoodwinked 600,000 people with the carrot that they can make 32 per cent on their initial investment every month, month after month. Consider the simple math and you will understand how greed preys upon people's psyche: Those investing Rs 57,500 in this scheme for a month were promised a return of Rs 625 every day, that is, 1.08 per cent daily. Multiply this daily return (Rs 625) by 30 (days of a month), divide it by the original investment (Rs 57,500) and multiply the answer by 100: The return is a mindboggling 32 per cent per month. Mittal, 26, who is known for his flashy lifestyle -- he had invited Bollywood stars Sunny Leone and Amisha Patel for his birthday on November 29, 2016 at his Delhi bungalow -- had devised his schemes in a shrewd manner that allowed people, who could not afford to invest a huge amount, to invest in different slabs beginning with Rs 5,750, Rs 11,500, Rs 28,750, and get proportionate returns. Apart from the monthly returns, investors were free to take away their initial corpus at the end of the year. Aren't you already planning your next vacation in the Maldives? That's how greed overwhelms common sense!

This is the greed factor that not just Anubhav Mittal, but many others before him, have used

successfully to swindle money by promising the moon. However, Mittal's luck ran short, when Amit Pathak and his 10-member team of detectives began following up on more than 4,500 emails to the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force's email ID complaining about the wrongdoing by various companies floated by Mittal, from across India, and a full-blown, multi-billion crore scam began to manifest itself before the investigators. The going was not very easy though as Mittal, a BTech in computer science, had made every attempt to obliterate his online footprint by hiding behind a web of companies that went by the name of 3W Digital Private Limited office, Ablaze Info Solutions Private Limited, or kept changing URLs from socialtrade.biz and later to frenzzup.com.

Amit Pathak, who spoke to Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore about the details of the case so far, finally blew the lid off this scam early February after working on it for three weeks. The UP STF has shared the data gathered from Mittal's offices and their investigations of four people arrested in this case so far with the Income Tax department and the Enforcement Directorate, indicating there is more to this scam than meets the eye. Though Pathak did not speak about the nature of the data shared with other investigation agencies, which naturally have jurisdiction over this scam, the ED has already filed a case against Mittal under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act based on the first information report filed by the UP STF. Most importantly, Rs 524 crore were recovered from Mittal's account in Yes Bank that could yet get the market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India and banking regulator Reserve Bank of India become a part of the investigations soon.

What can you tell us about the people you have arrested so far and how did you

arrive at the Rs 3,700 crore figure?

These are all technology-savvy, educated people who have made use of technology sufficiently well to defraud people. Our investigation of the arrested people revealed that this scam is worth Rs 3,700 crore and more. We cross checked this with their bank accounts to reach the figure. We recovered Rs 524 crore from his (Mittal's) bank account and the Rs 3,700 crore scam involves all the amount is right from the time he formed this company in 2015.

Out of the Rs 3,700 crore you are now left with Rs 500 crore. So, where is the rest of the money?

A part of this money has already been given to his customers to win their trust. In return, these customers got him more investors. Happy customers help attract more customers who would keep the machine running. It is possible that out of this total money collected over two years (Mittal floated this business model in 2015) he must have paid back Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 2,000 crore to his customers to win their trust and keep the scheme going.

It is quite possible that he could have shelved off or laundered Rs 1,000 crore for himself too. Isn't this money laundering? Using, depositing other people's money and use that money to pay other people using fictitious bank accounts is laundering only.

Siphoning money abroad?

No, most of this money was laundered only in India to keep his ponzi scheme well-oiled.

The kingpin/s of the scam...

We have made four arrests yet in this case and Anubhav Mittal is the kingpin of this entire

'digital marketing' or 'get paid for likes' or 'clicking on links' racket. Apart from the arrests of Anubhav Mittal, who is the director of 3W Digital Private Ltd, his CEO Shridhar Prasad and technical head Mahesh Dayal, we made one more arrest on February 8 (of Atul Mishra, relationship manager, Yes Bank's Raj Nagar District centre, Ghaziabad). There can be more people associated along with these four in this scam and they could be unearthed in the coming days. But Anubhav Mittal is the kingpin of this racket.

More arrests, likely...

100 per cent! 

What more remains to be unearthed?

The rest of the amount remains to be unearthed. Where have they spent or kept the rest of the amount; whether they have invested their wealth into real estate or any other place.

The team that cracked this case...

We were on this case since the last three weeks and 10 of my men worked diligently to crack this case. When we arrested these three, they were non-cooperative with the investigators. When we confronted them with the evidence that we had they started to speak. We had half the evidence with us before we made the arrests and these three then gave us access to CPUs, hard disks, and other electronic and digital material from their offices. We have asked for the custody of this evidence gathered by our team and Anubhav Mittal told us about their modus operandi. We have analysed and understood half the data gathered from the evidence and we need some time to understand more from the evidence that we have.

Insights and data analysis...

There is a huge connivance of bank people; there are clear instances of flouting of bank norms; there is a clear flouting of various warnings that were generated in the (bank's) system and the bank people overlooked it; there is violation of Companies Act; violation of Money Circulation Scheme (Banning) Act, 1978; violation of Income Tax rules, service rules.There could be accountants and auditors, too, involved criminally with these people.

We have deciphered and understood a lot of data we have gathered and we need to analyse a lot more for which we will need at least another month. But it may take another six months to complete a thorough investigation of this scam.

The bank from which the money was recovered...

The Rs 524 crore was recovered from Anubhav Mittal's account in Yes Bank, NOIDA branch.

Anubhav Mittal's political connections?

There are no political connections of the four arrests we have made so far.

Prasanna D Zore / Rediff.com

USA MIGHT ASK VISA APPLICANTS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA PASSWORDS

By PTI | Updated: Feb 09, 2017, 07.38 PM IST

WASHINGTON: Foreign travellers visiting the US may have to hand over their social media passwords for background check, a move which could come as part of the effort to toughen vetting of visitors, US Homeland Security Secretary has said

"We're looking at some enhanced or some additional screening," John Kelly told a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee.

"We may want to get on their social media, with passwords," he said.

"It's very hard to truly vet these people in these countries, the seven countries... But if they come in, we want to say, what websites do they visit, and give us your passwords. So we can see what they do on the internet," Kelly said on Tuesday.

"If they don't want to cooperate, then they don't come in" to the United States, he said.

Kelly told Congress that the measure was one of several being considered to vet refugees and visa applicants from seven Muslim-majority countries, the NBC News reported

His comments came the same day judges heard arguments over President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily barring entry to most refugees and travellers from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen.

Kelly, President Donald Trump appointee, stressed that asking for people's passwords was just one of "the things that we're thinking about" and that none of the suggestions were concrete.

Under the existing vetting process, according to Kelly, officials "don't have a lot to work with," relying on the applicant's documentation and asking them questions about their background.

"When someone says, 'I'm from this town and this was my occupation,' [officials] essentially have to take the word of the individual," he said.

"I frankly don't think that's enough, certainly President Trump doesn't think that's enough. So we've got to maybe add some additional layers. As well as asking people for their passwords," Kelly said he was looking at trying to obtain people's financial records.

"We can follow the money, so to speak. How are you living, who's sending you money?" he said.

"It applies under certain circumstances, to individuals who may be involved in on the payroll of terrorist organisations," Kelly said.

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 ..

WHAT DOES CYKC MEAN FOR MUTUAL FUND INVESTORS IN INDIA?

By Prashant Mahesh, THE ECONOMIC TIMES | Updated: Feb 09, 2017, 10.27 AM IST

From Feb 1, 2017, new investors in mutual funds will have to do CYKC (Central Know

Your Customer) before investing. The CKYC will replace the existing KYC. 

What is CKYC? 

Central KYC Registry, or CKYCR, will re place the existing multiple KYC submission

processes one needs to go through for various financial transactions, such as opening

bank accounts, buying life insurance, and investing in mutual funds. The government

has authorised the Central Registry Why has CKYC been undertaken? CKYC has

been undertaken to move investors to a single KYC platform. 

Before this, investors were required to complete KYC formalities with multiple agencies

for various financial products. All the records will now be stored digital ly, which will

helps intuitions remove duplicate data. It also helps institutions find out if the client is

KYC compliant. 

What does a first-time investor in mutual funds have to do? 

An investor now has to fill the new CKYC form before investing in mutual funds. Along

with the form, he has to submit a self-attested copy of his PAN card, and identity and

address proofs, such as passport and Aadhaar card. The new form has an extra field for

the name of the applicant's mother. Once the new form is processed by the registrar, a

14-digit KYC Identification Number (KIN) will be issued by CKYC, which can be used to

invest in all financial products including mutual funds. 

How can CKYC be done? 

Along with the CKYC form, photocopies of documents have to be physically verified and

attested, and an in-person verification of the investor has to be done. CKYC can be

done through a mutual fund distributor, or the investor will have to visit the office of a

mutual fund or a registrar. In case of NRI applicants, a person is authorised to attest the

documents, and he may also conduct the in-person verification and confirm this in the

KYC form.

Do existing mutual fund investors have to do anything? 

As of now, existing investors in mutual funds who are KYC compliant can continue

investing in mutual funds. No updation is required from their end. 

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nterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

CAs TO PAY FINE OF Rs.10,000 FOR FILING INCORRECT INFORMATION

CAs to pay fine of Rs 10,000 for filing incorrect info: Sushil Chandra

By PTI | Updated: Feb 07, 2017, 09.20 PM IST

NEW DELHI: In a bid to check filing of incorrect returns by CAs, the tax authority will impose Rs 10,000 fine on such professionals to deter such act. 

"Under Section 271J... we have entrusted responsibility with chartered accountants, valuers and merchant bankers who files audit, valuation reports and other things... So, if they file any incorrect information in the returns, they are also liable for a token penalty of Rs 10,000," CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra said. 

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NOIDA (INDIA) MAN DUPES 6 LAKH PEOPLE OF RS.3700 CRORES THRU PONZI SCHEME.

By Shafaque Alam, TNN | Updated: Feb 03, 2017, 10.26 AM IST

NOIDA: A 26-year-old BTech graduate tricked more than 6 lakh people into giving him their money through a Ponzi scheme that promised big returns for hitting 'likes' online.In a little over a year, Anubhav Mittal's Social Trade perpetrated a fraud of Rs 3,700 crore. 

The scheme operated through a maze of dubious URLs (online links) sent to phones of subscribers that they were asked to click. Cheekily, these would sometimes be links to Facebook or Twitter profiles of other subscribers. A fake server was set up where these

links would terminate. 

The scam surfaced with the arrest of Mittal and his two aides — 40-year-old Shridhar Prasad, an MBA, and 25-year-old Mahesh Dayal, who served as tech support — from an office in Noida's Sector 63 on Thursday. 

They had floated a fake company called Ablaze Info Solutions Private Limited that operated from there. 

The STF team that raided the office found 250 passports, purportedly of some high performers and employees of the fraudsters, who were to be rewarded with a trip to

Australia.. 

The investigation also led police to Rs 520 crore deposited in 12 accounts of the company registered in Canara Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank  and Axis Bank. The officials are investigating the company's balance sheet, investors' information, and bank accounts to which money was transferred. 

Noida has seen a series of call centre fraud busted over the past couple of years but this is the first racket to come to light that used 'like-trading' for a Ponzi scheme and perpetrated a fraud of this scale. Buying likes is common practice among companies that want to look better on social media. 

That is what Mittal's Social Trade used to spin its yarn — investors were told the company got business from a third party to increase the latter's online hits on digital platforms. The investors were given 25, 50, 75 and 125 URLs on their phones every day, based on the 'subscription plan'. 

Amit Pathak, senior superintendent of police, STF, said the trio had launched Social Trade as a pyramid scheme in 2015, telling people they could earn sitting from home."They enrolled people  with subscription money ranging from Rs 5,750, Rs 11,500, Rs28,750 and Rs 57,500. The investors were given a user ID and password and told theywould get random URLs on their phone and would be paid Rs 5 per like," Pathak said. 

For this purpose, they used Ablaze, which rented a four-storey building in Sector 63 for its office. Investors were told that they would receive monthly payments in their registered bank accounts. They were also told if they brought in more subscribers within 21 days, their income would increase. This process was called a 'booster' and, like any other Ponzi scheme, helped build a pyramid of investors. Till Thursday, the number of subscriptions had reached around 6.5 lakh. 

As the numbers soared, so did the risks. Most people did not receive the payments they were promised and began complaining. Some went to the police. An FIR was registered at Surajpur police station on January 31 and another FIR on February 1 at Phase III police station. The case was handed over to the STF. It emerged during the probe that around 1 lakh people had filed complaints on emails and text messages to Ablaze for non-payment of dues. 

"We found there was no business from any third party for getting online hits. The probe shows the accused had set up a fake server in Ghaziabad and the URL links terminated on the same server," Pathak said. 

The trio also shifted the domain name of their website frequently to hoodwink police. The Social Trade website — socialtrade.biz — was transferred to freehub.com in December 2016. Ten days later, it was shifted to intmart.com. On January 27, the business was shifted to frenzzup.com. Last week the accused had also changed the company's name and put up a board of W-3 Company. 

Ablaze paid monthly rent of Rs 7 lakh for the office. Mitta took home a 'salary' of Rs 5 lakh a month while Shridhar received Rs 1 lakh. Police said subscription money was their only revenue and the scheme was doomed to fail. 

What is a Ponzi scheme? 

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator promises and pays initial investors short-term returns that are far higher or unusually consistent compared to other investment options available in the market — not from profit earned from legitimate business, but from new capital collected from newer investors, enticed by the promise of high returns. 

Protest for and against Mittal 

Hundreds of investors gathered outside the office of Ablaze Info Solutions Private Limited in Sector 63 on Thursday when they came to know that the money they had invested in the company disappeared. However, it was a bizarre situation with a group of investors protesting in support of accused Anubhav Mittal and his company while another group protested against the company. 

The investors started reaching the office since morning and enquired about the issue from the guards and other staff. A group of investors claimed they were getting the returns as promised by the company officials and the crackdown was not justifiable. The investors started a protest and also raised slogans in support of Mittal. "I invested Rs 57,500 in the company and also got the return as promised. The police action is not good," said Sanjeev Kumar, an investor. 

However, a few people also protested against the company and its officials. 

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STEEP PENALTY LIKELY FOR DELAY IN FILING INCOME TAX RETURNS

Non-filers of income tax returns in India will now face a steep fine. The government has proposed an amendment to the provisions in the income tax rules dealing with the filing of returns seeking to impose a fine on non-filers. 

For people earning below Rs 5 lakh, filing returns after July will attract a fine of Rs 1,000 and those with earnings above Rs 5 lakh would face a fine of Rs 5,000. “Those who have an income over Rs 5 lakh and file returns after July but till December will face a fine of Rs 5,000. This fine will be raised to Rs 10,000 if the return is filed after December. 

At present, there is no fine if the returns are filed with a delay within the assessment year, but a penalty of Rs 5000 could be imposed if the filing was after it. But the income tax department did not aggressively pursue this.  

RUSSIAN SPY PURGE AFTER SUSPECTED LEAKS TO U.S.INTELLIGENCE

by Jose Pagliery, Matthew Chance and Emma Burrows   @CNNMoneyFebruary 1,

2017: 6:32 PM ET

CNN's Evan Perez and Simon Ostrovsky contributed to this report.

There's a purge of spies underway in Moscow, where two high-ranking Russian security service agents, a cybersecurity expert and a fourth man have been charged with treason for passing along secrets to American intelligence, according to a lawyer defending one of the

men.The men were charged "with treason in favor of the United States," said Ivan Pavlov,

the lawyer for one of the defendants.

So far, the counterintelligence raid is targeting computer security professionals -- men once trusted with Russian government secrets about hacking operations.The crackdown comes shortly after the U.S. intelligence officials in October officially accused Russia of using hackers to try steering the presidential election to Donald Trump. American officials have never stated that Russian government insiders gave them information that led to that accusation.

Several national experts, who do not have direct knowledge of American intelligence operations, suspect that Russian government insiders did leak information and that this Russian crackdown is a result of that. Russia's Inter fax news agency, which quoted anonymous sources, said both FSB officers are accused of passing confidential information to the CIA. However, other media reports in Russia, also quoting unnamed sources, claim these men have been arrested for taking part in a hacking ring that targeted Russian officials.

The two government agents were arrested in December and were officials in the FSB -- the nation's top security agency that was once known as the KGB. One was Sergei Mikhailov, head of the FSB Information Security Centre. The other was his deputy, Dmitry Dokuchayev. Russian media outlets have been reporting the treason charges in recent days, citing anonymous sources.

Russian security teams also arrested an employee of Russian internet security firm Kaspersky Lab. Ruslan Stoyanov was the head of the company's computer incidents

investigation team, where he oversaw hacking investigations. In a statement, Kaspersky said he was under investigation "for a period predating his employment at Kaspersky Lab." He had joined the company in July 2012, according to his LinkedIn profile. Kaspersky also insisted it has "no political ties to any government."

Pavlov would not disclose the identity of his client, the fourth man arrested. Pavlov told CNN that the charges against his client include providing help to "several special services of the United States."

Under Article 275 of the Russian Criminal Code, treason is punishable by 12 to 20 years in prison.The Kremlin has declined to confirm any details of the case. U.S. officials would not comment on the reported arrests.Several American security experts, including those formerly employed by the U.S. National Security Agency, fear for the safety of these prisoners. Paul Rosenzweig, once the Department of Homeland Security's deputy assistant

secretary for policy, recently speculated that these men could be killed for providing information to the United States.

"Their blood may be on our hands," Rosenzweig wrote last week in a widely read

national security blog.

.

HIGHLIGHTS OF INDIAN GOVERNMENT FINANCE BUDGET 2017

Income Tax rates halved to 5% for income of Rs 2.5-5 lakh, tax slabs unchanged

* 10% surcharge on people earning between Rs 50 lakh-1 cr

* 15% surcharge on annual income above Rs 1 cr to continue

* Cash transactions above Rs 3 lakh to banned

* Corporate tax for SMEs with turnover up to Rs 50 cr cut to 25%; 96% companies to benefit

* Customs duty of LNG halved to 2.5%

* Fiscal deficit pegged at 3.2% next year, 3% in FY'19

* Political parties barred from accepting cash donation beyond Rs 2,000 per individual

* They can receive donations via cheques, electronic mode; electoral bonds to be issued by RBI

* Aadhaar-based health cards for senior citizens; a scheme for them to ensure 8 pc guaranteed returns

* FIPB to be abolished; further FDI policy liberalisation

* Government to have time-bound procedure for CPSE listing

* Railway PSUs -- IRCTC, IRFC, IRCON to be listed

* Payment Regulatory Board to be set up within RBI to regulate digital payments

* Negotiable instruments Act to be amended to deal with cheque bounce cases

* Legislative changes to confiscate of assets of economic offenders who flee country

* Demonetisation bold, decisive measure; to help GDP growth, taxes mop up to rise

* Effect of demonetisation not to spill over to next year

* GST, demonetisation 'tectonic changes' for economy

* Service charges on e-tickets booked via IRCTC waived

* Capital expenditure of Railway fixed at Rs 1.31 lakh cr

* Rail safety fund of Rs 1 lakh cr over 5 years, unmanned level crossing to be eliminated by 2020

* Budget based on 3 agenda -- Transform, Energise, Clean India (TECIndia). MORE PTI JD

* 3 yr period for long-term capital gains tax on immovable property reduced to 2 years; base   year indexation shifted from April 1, 1981 to April 1, 2001

* Disinvestment target at Rs 72,500 cr, up from 56,500 cr 

* Gross market borrowing pegged at Rs 6.05 lakh cr

* Duty exempted on POS machines and Iris readers for encouraging digital payments

* Tax benefits for Start ups to be for 3 out of 7 yrs

* FPI to be exempt from indirect transfer provision

* Integrated public sector oil major to be created to match global giants

* Direct Tax collection growth 15.8%, indirect tax 8.3%

* Total expenditure pegged at Rs 21.47 lakh crore

* Capital expenditure up 24%; to have multiplier effect

* Allocation to states hiked to Rs 4.11 cr

* FRBM Committee suggests Debt-GDP ratio of 60% by 2020

* Retail inflation to remain within 2-6 pc

* 2 new AIIMS to come up in Jharkhand, Gujarat

* Highest ever allocation of Rs 48,000 cr to MNREGA

* Farm sector to grow at 4.1% this fiscal, to double farm income in five years

* Farm credit target for next fiscal at Rs 10 lakh crore

* Fasal Bima yojana increased to 40% of crop area; raised to Rs 1.41 lakh crore in Kharif        2017 season

* Infrastructure investment pegged at Rs 3.96 lakh cr

* To double irrigation fund corpus to Rs 40,000 cr

* Infrastructure status accorded affordable housing

* Dairy processing fund with Rs 2000cr corpus to be set up

* Rs 1.84 lakh cr allocated for women, child initiatives

* Rs 1.87 lakh cr allocated to rural, agri, allied sectors

* 1 crore houses by 2019 for homeless

* PM Awas Yojana allocation up from Rs 15,000 cr to Rs 23,000 cr

* 100% village electrification to be achieved by May 2018

* Rs 31,920 cr allocated for Scheduled Tribes, Rs 4,195 cr for nminority affairs, outcome        based budgeting to start

* Road sector allocation hiked to Rs 64,000 cr

* Innovation Fund to be created for Secondary Education

* Allocation of Rs 2.41 lakh crore rail, road, shipping to create jobs, spur economic activity

* New metro rail policy to be announced

* New crude oil reserves proposed at Odisha and Rajasthan; to take strategic reserve capacity to 15.33 mmt 

* India on cusp of digital revolution

* FDI increased 35 pc to Rs 1.45 lakh crore in H1 FY'17.