Budget Highlights 2010-11
The FM has presented Annual Budget for the year 2010-11. The snapshots and impact follow:
Now, lets have a look at the items which have become costlier / cheaper and the reason for same
- The market moved skywards on the FM's announcement of new tax slabs
- Income upto Rs. 1.6 lacs exempt from tax
- 10% tax on income between Rs 1.6 lacs to 5 lacs
- 20% tax on income between Rs 5 lacs to 8 lacs
- 30% tax on income above Rs 8 lacs
- Section 80c investment limit hiked by Rs 20000 (the investment has to be made in long term infrastructure bonds)
- IT exemption limit enhanced, surcharge withdrawn
- IT returns forms for individual tax payers to be further simplified (2 page Saral 2 form would be notified by IT deptt)
- Expenditure in 2010-11 estimated at 11,l8,749 crore
- Fiscal deficit estimated at 5.5 percent in 2010-11, which shows 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
- 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
- Government is currently aiming to quickly revert to 9 percent growth and then go for double digit growth; need to make recovery more broadbased
- Secondly, the govt's challenge is to make growth more inclusive, this will need food security
- Most important challange is to overcome weakness in government's public delivery mechanism.
Now, lets have a look at the items which have become costlier / cheaper and the reason for same
- Minimum alternate tax has gone up from 15% to 18% due to book profits
- Gold, Platinum and Silver to cost more due to increase in Customs duty - fulfilling wife's demands would be more taxing (in true sense)!!
- Service Tax rates remain unchanged
- Customs duty on gaming softwares to be rationalised
- Toys to become cheap due to exemption of excise duty
- CDs to become cheap
- CFL items (bulbs & tubes) to become cheap riding on halving of ED
- Refrigerators & Televisions to cost more
- Air Conditioners will become costlier
- Mobile Phones set to become more affordable
- Peak customs duty remains unchanged at 10%
- Cement to become costlier
- Petrol prices to rise by Rs. 2.67 per litre and Diesel price by Rs. 2.58 per litre w.e.f. the midnight of 26th Feb 2010, Friday
- Cigarettes and tobacco products see an upward movement in prices
- ED on bigger cars, SUVs and MUVs increased, thus leading to an increase in prices
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