Union Budget Highlights
• Budget spells out the target for the UPA: To bring back the 9% growth
• Commodities Transaction Tax (CTT) to be
scrapped
• 10% surcharge on personal Income tax
scrapped
• Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) to be
scrapped
• IT exemption limit for Women hiked to Rs 190,000
• IT exemption limit for Senior Citizens hiked to Rs 240,000
• Rs 12000 crore earmarked for expenditure on rural roads in FY 2010
• Drugs related to heart diseases to be cheaper
• Service Tax to be now apllicable on law firms
• Bio-diesel custom duty lowered
• Customs Duty on import of Gold and Silver increased
• Branded women's jewellery to be cheaper
• Rs 16300 Crore to be set aside for the upcoming Commonwealth Games
• IITs and NITs to get Rs 2113 crore
• Corporate Tax
unchanged
• One rank-one pension scheme to be in place for Ex-Servicemen
• National Ganga Project allocation to go up to Rs 562 Crore
• Unique Identification (UID) project under Nandan M. Nilekani to be out in 12-18 months
• NRHM allocation to be raised by Rs 257 crore
• A national level action plan in place for climate change
• National Employment Exchanges to be modernised
• Interest subsidy for home loans up to 1 lakh
• Indira Awaas Yojna bolstered up by 63% to Rs 8883 crore
• Saral 2 forms to simply tax filing process
• Emphasis on fertiliser subsidy reaching out directly to farmers
• Petroleum price expert panel to set petroleum prices which would be in sync with the global levels
• Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna allocation increased by 30%
• IIFCL, a new company would look into the infrastructure needs
• Extension of farm loan waiver scheme by 6 months
• Allocation of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) increased by 23%
• Fiscal stimulus at 3.5% pf the GDP
• Small scale businesses to be
exempted from advance tax
• 50% reduction in the Custom Duty on LCD panels
• Set top boxes to be costlier
• Goods and Services Tax (GST) to be in effect from April, 2010
• Textile units to enjoy continued tax holidays
• Pranab praises the 3 stimulus packages which were rolled out by the UPA to fight the global economic meltdown
•
Signals of revival in the domestic market: Pranab Mukherjee
