Union Budget 2017: What is TECI ? Jaitley's catchphrase in budget speech

In his budget speech at the parliament today, Arun Jaitley introduces the abbreviation TECI to define the government's plan for the Indian economy.

"The government will continue with the reforms to boost economic activity," he said in his speech in the Lok Sabha while setting three main agenda of the Budget -- Transform, Energise, Clean India (TECIndia).

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said the focus of his Budget for 2017-18 will be on 10 important sectors, including farmers, infrastructure, digital economy and tax administration to transform, energise and clean India.

The other areas of focus include rural India, the youth, poor and under-privileged, the financial sector, public service and prudent fiscal management.

He also announced substantial increase in farm credit to Rs 10 lakh crore and "highest ever" allocation for MNREGA at Rs 48,000 crore.

Also, a long-term irrigation fund has been proposed to be set up in Nabard with an additional corpus of Rs 20,000 crore.

The Budget for 2017-18 is itself a reform as it merges rail budget with General Budget and replaces Plan/non-Plan expenditure classification with capital and revenue model to give a holistic picture of government spending.

Meanwhile, to compensate for the hardships endured by the middle class during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's demonetisation drive, the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech on Wednesday announced a 5 per cent reduction in the existing rate of taxation for individuals with income between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh from the existing 10 per cent.

the finance minister emphasised that the direct tax collection in the country is not commensurate with income and expenditure pattern. Of 3.7 crore individuals who filed tax returns in 2015-16, 99 lakh showed income below exemption limit, the Finance minister said in his speech.

(With inputs from PTI)