New Delhi, Feb 26 (Inditop.com) Highlights of 2010-11 budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in parliament Friday:
— Clean energy cess of Rs.50 per tonne on coal produced in India
— Concessional duty of 4 percent for solar power rickshaw developed by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
— Concessional customs duty of 5 percent for cable TV operators for importing equipment
— Toys fully exempt from central excise duty
— Service sector tax retained at 10 percent to aid the introduction of GST; more services to be taxed
— Accredited news agencies exempt from service tax
— Net revenue gain Rs.22,500 crore
— Taxes on large cars and SUVs increased 2 percent to 22 percent
— Basic duty of 5 percent on crude oil restored
— Tax on cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco increased
— Rs. 26,000 crore revenue loss due to reduction of direct taxes
— Partial roll back of reduction in central excise duty
— Income up to Rs.1.6 lakh per year exempt from income tax; up to Rs.5 lakh to be taxed at 10 percent; income of Rs.5-8 lakh to be taxed at 20 percent and income above Rs.8 lakh to be taxed at 30 percent
— IT returns forms for individual tax payers to be further simplified
— Expenditure in 2010-11 estimated at 11,l8,749 crore
— Fiscal deficit estimated at 5.5 percent in 2010-11; an improvement of 1 percent over 2009-10
— Two more centralised tax processing centres to be set up in addition to the one at Bangalore
— National Social Security Fund created for workers in unorganised sector with allocation of Rs.1,000 crore
— Government to give Rs.1,000 for each National Pension Scheme account opened by workers in the unorganised sector
— Exclusive skill development programme for the textile sector
— Fifty percent hike in allocation for schemes for women and child development
— Rs.4,500 crore allocated for ministry of social justice and empowerment, a hike of 80 percent
— Rs.2,600 crore allocated for ministry of minorities affairs
— Rs.1,900 crore for Unique Identification Authority of India
— Rs.147,344 crore allocated for defence
— 2,000 youth to be recruited in central paramilitary forces
— Draft Food Security Bill prepared and will be put in the public domain
— Allocation on primary education raised from Rs.26,800 crore to Rs.31,300 crore
— Banking facilities to be provided to all habitations with a population of 2,000 and more
— Rs.66,100 crore allocated for rural development in 2010-11; Rs.40,100 crore for National Rural Employment Scheme; RS.48,000 crore for Bharat Nirman
— Rs.1,270 crore allocated for Rajiv Awas Yojana for slum dwellers, up from Rs.150 crore, an increase of 700 percent with the aim of creating a slum free India.
— Forty-six percent of plan allocations in 2010-11 will be for infrastructure development
— Coal Regulatory Authority to be set up to benchmark standards of performance
— Allocation for new and renewable energy sector increased 61 percent from Rs.620 crore to Rs.1,000 crore in 2010-11
— National Clean Energy Fund to be established
— Rs.200 crore allocated as special package for Goa to prevent erosion and increase green cover
— Government committed to growth of SEZs
— Four-pronged strategy for growth of agricultural sector
— Rs.200 crore to be provided in 2010-11 for climate-resilient agricultural initiative
— Involvement of private sector in grain storage to continue for another two years
— In view of drought and floods, debt repayment period extended to June 2010
— Five more mega food processing projects in addition to 10 existing ones
— FDI flows in April-December 2009 $20.9 billion
— FDI policy to be made more user-friendly with one comprehensive document
— Apex level financial stability council to be set up for banking sector
— Indian Banking Association to give additional licences to private players
— Provision for further capital for regional rural banks
— Roadmap for reducing public debt in six months
— Implementation of direct tax code from April 2011
— Government actively engaged in finalising structure of general sales tax regime; hopes to implement it from April 2011
— Rs.35,000 crore raised from divestment in 2009-10; will be higher in 2010-11
— New fertiliser policy from April 2010; will lead to improved productively and more income for farmers
— Economy stabilised in first quarter of 2009-10; strong rebound in second quarter; overall growth at 7.2 and could be higher when Q3 and Q4 are taken into account
— Export figures for January encouraging
— Hope to breach 10 percent growth mark in not too distant future
— Government set in motion steps to bring down food inflation
— Need to review stimulus package; need to make growth more broad-based
— India has weathered global economic crisis well; Indian economy in far better position than it was a year ago. In 2009 Indian economy faced grave uncertainty; delay in southwest monsoon had undermined agricultural production
— First challenge now is to quickly revert to 9 percent growth and then aim for double digit growth; need to make recovery more broadbased
— Second challenge is to make growth more inclusive; have to strengthen food security
— Third challenge is to overcome weakness in government’s public delivery mechanism; a long way to go in this
