India's Union Budget 2009-10: Highlights

India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has presented the Union Budget 2009-10 in Parliament. Following are the highlights of the budget:

Economy

• India targets return to 9% growth
• Total budget expenditure for 2009-10 will Rs. 10,28,032 crore
• Plan expenditure, for both Centre and States, to go up by Rs. 61,000 crore
• Fiscal deficit in 2009-10 is proposed at 6.8 per cent of GDP

Economic Stimuli

• Fiscal stimulus of Rs. 1,86,000 crore provided
• Stimulus for print media extended from June 13 to December 31

Jobs

• 12 million new jobs each year and reduce poverty by half by 2014
• Modernisation of national exployment exchanges to be carried out

Social Security & UID

• Action initiated to provide social security to unorganised sector workers
• First Unique Identification Card to citizens to roll out in 12-18 months. Government proposes provision of Rs. 120 crore for the project

Railways

• Allocation of railways increased to Rs. 15,800 crore

Infrastructure

• Higher public investment in infrastructure
• LNG infrastructure in the country being expanded
• Funding to NHAI stepped up by 23%
• Will make sufficient funds for infrastructure development

Programs for Poverty removal / Popular programs - NREGA

• Rs 3937cr for improvement of urban poor
• Allocation for Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission raised by 87% to Rs.12,887 crore
• Allocation for urban poor schemes to be raised to Rs. 39,730 crore in 2009-10
• Allocation for flagship Bharat Nirman progamme is being raised by 45 per cent
• NREGA coverage increased from 3.39 crore households in 2007-08 to 4.74 crore householdsin 2008-09

Housing for Poor

• Rs. 2,000 crore for rural housing fund under National Housing Bank
• For Indira Awas Yojana, allocation to be increased by 63 per cent in 2009-10 to touch Rs. 8,800 crore

Indirect Tax

• Goods and Services Tax to be introduced from April 1, 2010
• Commodities Transaction Tax abolished
• New pension system trust exempted from security transaction tax and dividend distribution tax
• Customs duty of 5 per cent being levied on import of set-top boxes used under Conditional Access System

Direct Tax - Corporate

• Direct Tax code to be released in 45 days along with discussion paper
• Share of direct taxes has increased to 56 per cent in 2008-09 over 41 per cent in 2007-08
• No change in corporate tax
• Effort is to improve tax collection by eliminating distortions in tax system and expanding the base
• Fringe Benefit Tax abolished
• Minimum Alternate Tax on book profits increased to 15 per cent from 10%.
• Presumptive Taxation of 8 per cent on businesses of turnover of up to Rs. 40 lakh
• Small businesses up to Rs. 40 lakh turnover exempted from filing advance tax returns

Direct Tax - Individual

• Tax department to work on early introduction of Saral 2 forms
• Government committed to tax reforms
• Personal income tax exemption limit for senior citizens raised by Rs. 15,000
• IT exemption limit raised; Rs. 50,000 for Sr.citizens
• Limit raised by Rs. 10,000 for tax payers, including women
• 10% surcharge on personal income tax scrapped
• Income tax incentives on education loans expanded to cover vocational studies after schooling

Agriculture

• Rs. 1,000 crore to accelerate irrigation projects
• Agriculture development fund increased from Rs. 2.87 lakh crore to Rs. 3.25 lakh crore

Exports

• Market development assistance scheme for exporters increased by 148 percent to Rs.124 crore
• Pre-shipment interest subvention set at 2% for textile exporters

Women

• Rashtriya Mahila Kosh corpus to be raised from Rs. 100 crore to Rs. 500 crore
• National Mission for Female Literacy with emphasis on minorities, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes to be launched
• 50% of all rural women to be brought into self-help group programmes

Youths & Students

• Full interest subsidy for students taking courses in approved institutions. 500,000 students to benefit.

Environment

• Under National Action Plan on climate change, eight national missions are being launched
• For one of the missions, National Ganga Project, Government proposes to increase allocation to Rs. 562 crore

Health

• Allocation for National Rural Health Mission to be raised by Rs. 257 crore over and above the outlay in the interim budget

Higher Education

• Rs. 2,113 crore for IITs and NITs
• Allocation of Rs. 50 crore to Chandigrah University
• Rs. 25 crore each for AMU campuses in Murshidabad and Mallapuram
• Rs. 2,113 crore for IITs and NITs
• Income tax incentives on education loans expanded to cover vocational studies after schooling

Defence / Armed Forces

• Defence outlay has gone up
• Pension of non-commissioned officers to be hiked
• One rank, one pension scheme for ex-servicemen approved

Relief and Rehabilitation

• Rs. 500 crore for rehabilitation of internally displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka
• Rs. 1,000 cr for Aila rehabilitation programme to West Bengal