Highlights Of Union Budget

The Union finance minister today presented the Budget for the year 2013-14. Some of the key points that were highlighted by Chidambaram in the Budget are:

- No change in slabs and rate for personal income tax. 

- Tax credit of Rs 2000 to be provided to every person to having income of up to Rs 5 lakh, this will benefit 1.8 crore people. 

- 5 to 10 per cent surcharge on domestic companies whose taxable income exceeds Rs 10 crore. 

- Commodities transaction tax levied on non-agriculture commodities futures contracts at 0.01 per cent. 

- Modified GAAR norms to be introduced from April 1, 2016. 

- No change in peak rate of customs duty for non-agriculture products. 

- Direct Taxes Code (DTC) bill to be introduced in current Parliament session. 

- No change in basic customs duty rate of ten per cent and service tax rate of 12 per cent. 
 

- Import duty on rice bran oilcake withdrawn. 

- Series of concessions granted to Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) business in the aviation sector. 

- Import duty raised on set-top boxes from 5 to 10 per cent to safeguard interest of domestic producers. 

- 10 per cent customs duty to be levied on unprocessed illuminate. 

- Import duty raised from 75 to 100 per cent on luxury vehicles. 

- Duty free limit on gold raised to Rs 50,000 in case of male and Rs 100,000 in case of female. 

- No countervailing duty on ships and vessels. 

- Specific excise duty on cigarettes and cigars raised by 18 per cent. 

- Excise duty on SUVs to be increased to 30 per cent from 27 per cent, SUVs registered as taxis exempted. 

- Vocational courses offered by state-affiliated institutes to be exempted from services tax. 

- Duty on mobiles above Rs 2,000 raised from one to six per cent, based on their maximum retail prices. 

- Service tax to be levied on all a/c restaurants. 

- One time voluntary compliance scheme for service tax defaulters to be introduced. Interest and penalties to be waived. 

- Direct tax proposals to yield Rs 13,300 crore, indirect tax proposal to give Rs 4,700 crore. 

- Education cess to continue at 3 per cent. 

- Contributions made to central and state government health scheme eligible to tax benefit. 

- Eligibility conditions for life insurance policies of persons suffering disabilities to be liberalised. 

- Investor Protection Fund set up by depositories will be exempt from tax. 

- Transactions on immovable properties usually undervalued. 

- TDS of one per cent on value of properties above Rs 50 lakh. Agriculture land exempted. 

- Securities Transaction Tax (STT) reduced on equity future, mutual fund. 

- Fiscal deficit will be 5.2 per cent in current year and 4.8 per cent in the next fiscal. 

- Will redeem our pledge to reduce fiscal deficit to 3 per cent by 2016-17 and revenue deficit to 1.5 per cent of GDP. 

- Tax Administration Reform Commission to be set up to regularly review tax law applications. 

- In 2011-12, tax-GDP ratio was 5.5 per cent for direct taxes and 4.6 per cent for indirect taxes. 

- Surcharge of 10 per cent for individuals whose taxable income is over Rs 1 crore. 

- Plan expenditure pegged at Rs 555,322 crore. 

- Non plan expenditure pegged at Rs 11,09,975 crore for 2013-14. 

- Low interest rate funds to be provided from Clean Energy Fund for green projects for a period of five years. 

- Generation-based incentives to wind energy projects reintroduced, Rs 800 crore provided for the purpose to Ministry of New & Renewable Energy.

- Constraints will not come in the way for providing additional funds for security of the nation. 

- Rs 2,03,672 crore, including Rs 86,741 crore capital expenditure to Defence in 2013-14. 

- Grant of Rs 100 crore each to AMU (Aligarh), BHU (Varanasi) and TISS (Guwahati) and INTACH. 

- National Institute for Sports to train coaches to be set up at Patiala at a cost of Rs 250 crore. 

- Rs 532 crore to make post offices part of core banking. 

- Rs 5,87,082 crore to be transferred to states under share of taxes and non plan grants in 2013-14. 

- Comprehensive social security package being evolved by convergence of several schemes run by various ministries. 

- Investor with stake of 10 per cent or less will be treated as FII; any stake more than 10 per cent will be treated as FDI. 

- FIIs will be allowed to participate in exchange traded currency derivatives. 

- We will evolve schemes for cities to take up waste to energy projects. 

- Small and medium companies to be allowed to listed on MSME exchange without making a public offer. 

- Concessional six per cent interest on loans to weavers. 

- Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) to submit its report next month. 

- Govt to construct power transmission system from Srinagar to Leh at the cost of Rs 1,840 crore, Rs 226 crore provided in current Budget. 

- Faced with huge fiscal deficit, I have no choice but to rationalise expenditure.

- We have brought down headline WPI inflation to 7 per cent and core inflation to 4.2 per cent. Food inflation is worrying.

- Plan expenditure in 12th Five Year Plan revised to Rs 14,30,825 crore or 96 per cent of budgeted expenditure. 

- Budget expenditure is Rs 16,65,297 crore and Plan expenditure Rs 5,55, 322 crore.

- The revised expenditure target is Rs 14,30,825 crore or 96 per cent of Budget estimate for this fiscal. In 2013-14, the budget estimate is Rs 6,65,297 crore. 

- One overarching goal to provide education and skills to youth for securing jobs in the 2013-14. 

- FM allocates Rs 41,561 crore for SC sub-plan; Rs 24,598 crore for tribal sub plan. 

- Additional sum of Rs 200 crore to Women and Child Welfare Ministry to address issues of vulnerable women. 

- Rs 3511 crore allocated to Minority Affairs Ministry which is 60 per cent of the revised estimates. 

- CFM allocates Rs 41,561 crore for SC sub-plan; Rs 24,598 crore for tribal sub plan. 

- Rs 3511 crore allocated to Minority Affairs Ministry which is 60 per cent of the revised estimates.  

- Rs 110 crore to be allocated to the department of Disability Affairs. 

- Rs 37,330 crore allocated for Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. 

- Rs 1069 crore allocated to Department of Aryush. 

- Rs 4,727 crore to be allocated for medical education and research. Rs 1,069 crore to be given to Department of Ayush. 

- In the Budget Rs 65,867 crore allocated to Ministry of HRD in 2013-14. 

- Medical colleges in six more AIIMS-like institutions to start functioning this year; Rs 1650 crore allocated for the purpose. 

- Rs 5,284 crore to various Ministries for scholarships for SC/ST, OBC and minority students. 

- Rs 13,215 crore to be provided for mid-day meal scheme. 

- Rs 17,700 crore provided for Integrated Child Development Scheme. 

- Rs 15,260 crore to be allocated to Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. 

- Rs 17,700 crore to be allocated for Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). 

- Rs 80,194 crore allocation for Ministry of Rural Development in 2013-14. About Rs 33,000 crore for MGNREGA. 

- Rs 80,194 crore allocated for rural development schemes. 

- States which have completed Pradhan Mantri Gramin Sadak Yojana will be eligible for PMGSY-II, others will continue with PMGSY-I.

- Rs 14,873 crore for JNNURM for urban transportation in 2013-14 against Rs 7,880 crore in the current fiscal. 

- Foodgrain production in 2012-13 will be over 250 million tons. 

- Average annual growth rate of agriculture and allied services estimated at 3.6 per cent in 2012-13 when 250 MT foodgrains was produced. 

- Rs 27,049 crore allocation to the Agriculture Ministry in 2013-14. 

- Rs 7 lakh crore target fixed for agriculture credit for 2013-14 compared to Rs 5.75 lakh crore in the current year. 

- Eastern Indian states to get Rs 1,000 crore allocation for improving agricultural production. 

- Additional sum of Rs 200 crore to Women and Child Welfare Ministry to address issues of vulnerable women. 

- Green revolution in east India significant. Rice output increased in Assam, Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal; Rs 1,000 crore allocated for eastern states. 

- Rs 5,387 crore to be allocated for integrated watershed programme for farmers in 2013-14, an increase from Rs 3,050 crore in the current fiscal.