Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today proposed to replace existing 3 per cent education cess on personal income tax and corporation tax with a 4 per cent ’Health and Education Cess’ to take care the education and health needs of poor and rural families.
At present, a 3 per cent cess, consisting of 2 per cent cess for primary education and 1 per cent cess for secondary and higher education, is levied on personal income tax and corporation tax.
“In order to take care of the needs of education and health of BPL and rural families... I propose to increase the cess by one per cent. The existing three per cent education cess will be replaced by a four per cent ‘Health and Education Cess’ to be levied on the tax payable.
“This will enable us to collect an estimated additional amount of ₹11,000 crore,” Jaitley said while presenting the Budget 2018-19 in Parliament today.
Jaitley in his Budget speech also said that it has been decided that by 2022, every block with more than 50 per cent Schedule Tribe (ST) population and at least 20,000 tribal persons will have an Ekalavya Model Residential School.