Budget High light 2008-09

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High Light of Budget 2008-2009

Tax exemption for women increased to Rs 1.8 lakh - New tax slabs: 10 per cent for 1,50,000 to 3,00,000, 20 per cent for 3,00,000 to 5,00,000 and 30 per cent above 5,00,000 - Excise on packaged softwares to be lower from 8% to 12% - No excise duty on refrigerating equipments - Anti-Aids drug exempted from excise duty - Small cars to become cheaper - Reduced excise duty on two, three wheelers - Excise duty on hybrid cars cut from 24 pct to 14 pct - Excise on small cars cut to 12 pct from 16 pct - Rs 50 cr for tiger conservation - Sixth Pay Commission report by March 2008 - Defence allocation up by 10% from Rs 96,000 cr to Rs 1,56,000 cr - 22 Sainik schools get Rs 44 crore - Rs 624 cr for Commonwealth Games - PAN sole identification in securities market - Debt waiver scheme and relief to small and marginal farmers - Duty reduced on life saving drugs - Rs 750 crore for upgradation of 300 ITIs in 25 districts. - No change in peak customs duty - Money changers and people running gains of chance and tour operators to be brought under service tax net - Revenue Deficit is Rs 55,184 cr at 1% of GDP and fiscal deficit is Rs 1,33,287 cr at 3.1% of GDP - Estimated planned expenditure at Rs 2,43,086 cr and non-panned expenditure Rs 57,409 cr - Central Plans Scheme monitoring system under Plan Panel to be unveiled - Non-agri peak rates for customs raises to 10% from 2% in 2004 - Tax to GDP ratio at 9.2% in 2004 up by 12.5% in 2007-08 - Custom duty on steel scrapped - Set-top boxes to become cheaper - Custom duty on vitamin pre-mixes to lower from 30% to 20% - Agri loans disbursed by rural banks, RRBs and ative banks before March 2007 and overdue on Dec 2007 waived - Overdue agri loans amount to Rs 50,000 cr under the waiver and Rs 10,000 cr under the one time settlement - Implementation of waiver to be completed by June 2008 - Farmers eligible for fresh agri loans post the waiver or one time settlement - Haryana and Chandigarh to introduce smart card based delivery system under PDS - National Agri Insurance scheme get Rs 640 cr - National Highway development program gets Rs 12966 cr - Rs 8000 cr plan for faster power reforms - National housing bank gets Rs 1,200 cr for refinancing - Govt asks commercial banks to add 250 rural household accounts every year in rural and semi-urban banks - States urged to open bidding for 5 more ultra mega power projects - All 30 integrated textile parks approved - Rs 340 cr insurance scheme to cover 17 lakh farmers and weavers - SITP gets Rs 450 crore - Rs 275 cr earmarked for state data centres - NHDP allocation up from Rs 10,866 cr to Rs 12,966 cr - Move towards nutrient-based fertiliser subsidy stressed - National fund for transmission and distribution reforms for power sector - FDI in Apr-Dec at $12.7 billion, FII inflow over $18 billion - PNB says banks to be reimbursed accordingly - Tea Research association gets Rs 20 cr - 500 soil testing labs to be set up in the 11th plan, govt to give 1 time budgetary assistance of Rs 75 cr to agri ministry for setting up mobile soil testing facilities - National Horticulure Mission to get Rs 1,100 cr - Govt sets up irrigation and water resource finance corp with an initial corpus of Rs 100 cr - Schedule Commercial Banks farm credit 75% - Micro irrigation scheme gets Rs 500 cr to cover 4,00,000 additional hectares - Rs 12050 cr for strengthening rural health services - 24 pct allocation hike for women, child development - Inflation will be kept under check - Jawaharlal Navoday Vidyalaya to be set in 20 new districts for SC/STs - Healthcare allocation to be raised by 15% - Bhopal and Tripura to get one IIScR each and 2 colleges of art - 3 IITs to be set up in Bihar, AP, Rajasthan - 288 public sector bank branches to be opened in areas with concentration of minorities - Irrigation outlay increased - National Minority Development and Finance Corp to get Rs 75 cr - Special attention, more funds for North East - 54 gender budgeting cells set up - Agriculture share in total investment up from 10.2% in 2003-04 to 16% during the 11th Plan - Agri credit target to be Rs 2,80,000 cr for 2008-09 - LIC to cover all woman SHGs linked to the bank - Mobilisation of additional resources of Rs 10,000 cr as planned capital expenditure under Plan-B - Allocation for ministry of minorities doubled to Rs 1,000 cr - Schemes for woman to get Rs 1,460 cr this fiscal - Child related schemes to get Rs 33,434 cr - 54 departments to be set up gender budgeting divisions - Rajiv Gandhi drinking water mission to get Rs 7,300 cr - Rs 3,966 cr for SC/STs schemes - Allocation of Rs 75 cr for 2008-09 for the Rajiv Gandhi felicitation programme - Sanitation to get Rs1,200 cr - Rs 200 cr for providing portable water system in each school in areas of water scarce regions - IT industry gets Rs 100 cr for connecting knowledge institutions - NREGS to be extended to 596 rural distt with an outlay of Rs 16,000cr - The remuneration Angan Bari workers has been increased from Rs 1000 cr-1500 cr per month - Women entitled to equal share and equal say - Science scholarships for young learners - 16 Central universities to be set up - 6000 model high schools to be started - Science scholarships for young learners - Inflation will be kept under check - More allocation for polio and AIDS - Health covers of Rs 30000 for workers in unorganised sectors - Education sector gets a boost - Agri credit doubled in first two years - Bharat Nirman allocation to go up to Rs 31,280 cr from Rs 24,603 cr - Gross Budgetary support to be Rs 24,3386 cr about Rs 38,286 cr more than 2007-08 - Agriculture credit to touch 2,40,000 cr in 2008 - Focus on achievement of self-sufficiency in food grain - Soyabean output to be 9.45 mn tonnes - Maize production to be 16.78 mn tonnes - Rice production to be 94.08 mn tonnes - Total agri production to be 219.32 mn tonnes at all time high - Agriculture disappointing at average annual growth of 2.6% - Keeping inflation under check to be on focus - Focus on management of supply side of food, market, capital inflows next year - India has registered a growth of over 8%$ for 12 successive quarters till Dec 2007