Union Budget 2010

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On February 26, 2010, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented a Budget that broadly focused on fiscal stabilization. The Union Budget was presented at a time when the Indian economy was on the path of revival and almost all demand indicators had turned significantly positive. Investment and consumption demand was also on a revival mode. The buoyancy in the manufacturing sector and uptick in import and export were also working well for economic growth prospects.

In the current economic scenario, what was required from the Budget was a further push for consumption and investment. The Budget announcements have tried to do just that.

The continued thrust on agriculture, infrastructure and rural development will unlock much of the economic growth potential in the medium-term. Along with maintaining the focus on broad based growth, the Budget has also addressed concerns on the fiscal deficit front.

Given that overall demand in the economy is still firming up, it is unlikely that the 2% hike in excise duty will be passed on, thus mitigating any immediate inflationary concerns. Also, the focus on improving food security should aid in containing food price inflation. It remains to be seen, however, how the increase in excise duty for petrol and diesel pans out in terms of its impact on inflation.

The corporate sector was slapped with a higher minimum alternate tax (MAT) at 18 per cent, in comparison to 15 per cent earlier. However, the reduction in surcharge by 2.5 percentage points to 7.5 per cent will offset much of the higher MAT impact.

On the reforms' front, Mr Mukherjee accepted the 13th Finance Commission's recommendations on the suggested tax-sharing formula with States, but decided to wait for a status paper to study the implications of the Commission's proposal on capping the government's combined debt at 68 per cent of GDP. He also deferred announcing the roadmap for the introduction of a goods and services tax (GST) to April 2011, bas also the implementation of the Direct Taxes Code.

On the crucial question of implementing oil pricing reforms, as suggested by the Kirit Parikh Committee report, the Finance Minister put the ball in his colleague Murli Deora's court, saying the petroleum minister would take an appropriate decision in due course.

In the financial sector, the Finance Minister proposed that private players would be considered for some additional licenses for banks and non-banking finance companies, subject to the fulfilment of the Reserve Bank of India's eligibility criteria. He also allocated over Rs 16,500 crore to ensure that public sector banks are able to attain a minimum eight per cent Tier-I capital by March 2011.

On the expenditure side, the Finance Minister provided generous allocations for the rural development and social sectors. Total plan expenditure is slated to go up 18 per cent to Rs 3.73 lakh crore, while the Centre's budgetary support would go up by a higher margin of 22 per cent to Rs 2.8 lakh crore. Agriculture, too, received special attention with a four-pronged strategy that focused on agricultural production, reduction in wastage, credit support to farmers and a thrust on the food processing sector.

Direct Taxes

• Those falling under the tax slab of up to Rs 1.6 lakh now do not have to pay any tax. From Rs 1.6 lakh to Rs 5 lakh the tax rate is at 10 per cent; Rs 5 lakh to Rs 8 lakh at 20 per cent; and income above Rs 8 lakh will be taxed at 30 per cent.
• To promote savings, deduction of an additional amount of Rs 20,000 has been allowed, over and above the existing limit of Rs 1 lakh on tax savings, for investment in long-term infrastructure bonds notified by the Central government.
• Apart from contributions to health insurance schemes currently allowed as a deduction under the Income-tax Act, contributions to the Central Government Health Scheme will also be allowed as a deduction.
• The current surcharge of 10 per cent on domestic companies has been reduced to 7.5 per cent. Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) has been increased from 15 per cent to 18 per cent of book profits.
• To encourage R&D, the weighted deduction on expenditure incurred on in-house R&D has been enhanced from 150 per cent to 200 per cent.
• Limits for turnover over which accounts need to be audited have been enhanced to Rs 60 lakh for businesses and to Rs 15 lakh for professions.
• Limit of turnover for the purpose of presumptive taxation of small businesses has been enhanced to Rs 60 lakh.

Indirect Taxes

• Rate reduction in central excise duties has been partially rolled back and the standard rate on all non-petroleum products enhanced from 8 per cent to 10 per cent ad valorem.
• Excise duty on large cars, multi-utility vehicles and sports-utility vehicles has been increased from 20 per cent to 22 per cent.
• The basic duty of 5 per cent on crude petroleum, 7.5 per cent on diesel and petrol, and 10 per cent on other refined products has been restored. Central excise duty on petrol and diesel has been enhanced by Re 1 per litre each.
• Excise duty on all non-smoking tobacco such as scented tobacco, snuff, chewing tobacco etc has been enhanced.
• Certain services, hitherto untaxed, are being brought within the purview of Service tax, which include health checkups, services by electricity exchanges, services of sponsorship of sports, services of promoting of a "brand" of goods, services and events, amongst others. However accredited news agencies which provide news feed online and meet certain criteria have been exempted from service tax.
• Refrigeration units required for the manufacture of refrigerated vans or trucks will be fully exempt from customs duty. Specified equipment for preservation, storage and processing of agriculture and related sectors will be exempt from Central excise.
• To build the corpus of a National Clean Energy Fund, a clean energy cess on coal produced in India, at a nominal rate of Rs 50 per tonne, will be levied. This cess will also apply to imported coal.
• Monorail projects for urban transport will be granted project import status and be charged a concessional basic duty of 5 per cent.

Income-tax management simplified
In 2010-11, the salaried can look forward to easy tax filings. The new Saral-II form, which will only have two pages, will ease tax filing pains. It has been decided to phase-out the current, cumbersome form, 2F.

Tax-payers can also look forward to less interaction with the tax authorities, thanks to the computerisation and modernisation of the Income Tax Department. The Centralised Processing Centre at Bengaluru is fully functional and is currently processing around 20,000 returns a day. Tax experts say that such systems will make the audits more computerised and free from the control of any individual assessing officer.

The government has also introduced a pilot project, called 'Sevottam', to provide single window system for registration of all applications, including those for redressal of grievances, as well as paper returns. Currently, the scheme is on in Pune, Kochi and Chandigarh. Four more centres will be added in 2010-11.

Fiscal Consolidation Plan
In line with the recommendations of the 13th Finance Commission, Mr Pranab Mukherjee presented a roadmap for fiscal consolidation and set the fiscal deficit target at 5.5 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for 2010-11. He also moved towards a transparent fiscal accounting system by including expenses due to oil and fertilizer subsidies as liabilities (of 2008-09) and cash subsidy in 2009-10, and stated the deficit for 2009-10 to be at 6.9 per cent of GDP, as against a comparable figure of 7.8 per cent of GDP in 2008-09. The target of 5.5 per cent for 2009-10 includes expenses on account of oil and fertilizer subsidies.

The actual net borrowing of the government in 2010-11 would be Rs 3,45,010 crore. The revenue deficit is also expected to show significant decline to 4 per cent of GDP from 5.3 per cent in 2009-10. The fiscal consolidation plan would be met through the availability of disinvestment proceeds and an overall reform in the expenditure management of the government including subsidies.

For 2009-10, the fiscal deficit was revised downwards to 6.7 per cent, from a projected target of 6.8 per cent. The fiscal deficit for 2009-10 is the widest deficit in the last two decades. In absolute terms, however, the fiscal deficit for 2009-10 was revised up by 3.25 per cent to Rs 4,14,041 crore from a target set at Rs 4,00,996 crore. For 2010-11, the fiscal deficit in absolute terms is estimated to be at Rs 3,81,408 crore.

Such an increase in fiscal deficit in absolute terms is on account of lower revenue receipts in the current fiscal, even as expenditure more or less met the targets. In proportion to GDP, the revenue deficit increased to 5.3 per cent, up from an earlier projection of 4.8 per cent.

With the government's focus shifting to fiscal consolidation and tightening expenditure, it expects to spend 66 per cent of total expenditure on non-plan activities during 2010-11, compared to 70 per cent in 2009-10. The main reason for this is that the burden on account of Sixth Pay Commission report is off its back now.

The total government expenditure during 2010-11 would be Rs 11,08,749 crore, of which non-plan would be Rs 735,657 crore. Despite the austerity drive, the non-plan expenditure during the current year rose 15 per cent to Rs 706,371.23 crore. This was mainly on account of Rs 19,749 crore increase in subsidy payout, of which petroleum subsidy alone accounted for Rs 12,000 crore.

The total Central Plan outlay is Rs 524,484 crore during 2010-11, as against Rs 425,590 crore in the revised estimate for 2009-10.

The government has proposed a shift from bonds to cash for compensating the oil and fertiliser companies. The move will help in improving the cash flows of companies in both these sectors. However, the government allocated a lower subsidy of Rs 3,108 crore on petroleum products, primarily domestic LPG and kerosene, for 2010-11, compared to revised estimates of Rs 14,954 crore in 2009-10 over and above the grant of Rs 10,306 crore through bonds.

Infrastructure
Mr Pranab Mukherjee has allocated a large chunk of the total plan outlay of Rs 3,73,000 crore for 2010-11 to infrastructure sectors, including road, power, railway, ports and airports. To build the corpus of the National Clean Energy Fund set up earlier, he announced a cess on coal production at a nominal Rs 50 per tonne. This will be levied on imported coal, too. Around 75 per cent of the power generated in the country is coal-based.

In another step at cutting domestic carbon emissions, the government increased the plan outlay for the Renewable Energy Ministry by 61 per cent to Rs 1,000 crore for 2010-11. The Ministry is implementing the ambitious National Solar Mission, aimed at setting up 20,000 MW of solar power capacity by 2020.

Budget 2010 has also provided a concessional customs duty of five per cent for solar power generating equipment.

Allocations for roads and railways together were over 36,600 crore, an increase of Rs 3,300 crore. The government has targeted construction of national highways at the pace of 20 km a day.

Disbursements of the India Infrastructure Finance Company, set up to provide long-term financial assistance, would touch Rs 9,000 crore by March 2010 and reach around Rs 20,000 crore by March 2011.

Rural Infrastructure
Bharat Nirman, the six-fold action plan for rural infrastructure development, charted out in 2006 by the then UPA government, will enter the second year of its second phase with Rs 48,000 crore, with the bulk of the increase going to rural electrification, housing and roads.

The umbrella scheme, which has a clutch of six different programmes under it, had entered the second phase in 2009 with an allocation of Rs 40,900 crore. In 2010 it has gone up to Rs 48,000 crore.

The main areas covered under it are roads, houses, drinking water, irrigation, telephony and electricity in rural areas. The budget for the first phase was Rs 1,74,000 crore. But in the second phase, the road component alone is expected to cost Rs 1,32,000 crore, as per the Budget document.

The Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), which targets to connect villages with a population of 1,000, has got an allocation of Rs 9,995 crore as against 2009-10 revised allocation of Rs 9,475 crore. The Yojana was launched on December 25, 2000 as a 100 per cent centrally sponsored scheme. But today it meets its expenses also through loans from the Asian Development Bank and World Bank.

In addition, an allocation of Rs 10,000 crore has been made as loan for PMGSY through the RIDF window of NABARD.

The PMGSY was to connect 66,000 habitations in the previous four years. The target now is to reach 1,67,000 habitations at a cost of Rs 1,32,000 crore by 2012.

The Bharat Nirman component on housing, called Indira Awas Yojana, which was to build 6 million dwellings in the four years ending 2009, now has a target of 12 million houses by 2014. The funds for this scheme implemented by the rural development ministry have gone up from Rs 7,918 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 8,996 crore in 2010-11.

About Rs 5,000 crore for this scheme will be provided by the National Investment Fund.

The funds for rural electrification have gone up in 2010-11 with fund transfers to Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana going up from Rs 3,100 crore to Rs 5,000 crore. The entire funding for the scheme is coming from the National Investment Fund.

The scheme was started with the aim of providing power connections to 100,000 villages and release electricity connections to 23 million rural BPL households in five years.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) will continue with its mammoth agenda of providing 100 days of work in the country's rural areas, drawing its oxygen mainly from the National Investment Fund (NIF). A major part of the scheme's allocation will come from the NIF for the second consecutive year. NIF draws money from disinvestment of government stake in public sector undertakings.

The allocation for NREGS has gone up marginally from Rs 39,100 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 40,100 crore in 2010-11. But the share of NIF component in NREGS funding has gone up from Rs 11,730 crore in 2009-10 (when the total allocation was Rs 39,100 crore) to Rs 18,768 crore in 2010-11 (against the total allocation of Rs 40,100 crore). Therefore, the government expenditure on NREGP has been declining.

The NIF proceeds for 2009-10, estimated at Rs 25,000 crore, will come on account of disinvestment of government stake in NHPC Ltd, NTPC Ltd, Oil India Ltd, Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd and NMDC Ltd. The NIF, which was constituted in 2009, is expected to part-fund social sector schemes till 2011-12.

The increased funding of Rs 1,000 crore will barely be enough to create the over 300,000 Panchayat Bhawans or Rajiv Gandhi Seva Kendras proposed by the Rural Development Ministry in every panchayat in the country, or to fund NGOs in these panchayats to help run the scheme.

Meanwhile, this Budget has extended the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) benefits to all NREGS beneficiaries who had worked for more than 15 days during the preceding financial year.

The insurance coverage would be through the Rs 30 per year smart cards which would provide the entire family health insurance cover worth Rs 30,000.

Agriculture Sector
The agriculture sector is in for a major push with an unprecedented 21.6 per cent hike in the central plan allocation to address the supply side constrains that have led to high food inflation.

Besides measures to boost production, stress has been laid on opening up of retail trade to reduce the wide differences between the farm gate, wholesale and retail prices. Tax sops to infrastructure have also been proposed to facilitate storage and safe handling of perishable foods until the retail points.

A four-pronged strategy has been mooted in the Budget to spur growth in farm production. It involves measures to raise agricultural production; reduce wastages; strengthen credit support to farmers; and lend a thrust to the food processing sector for value addition of farm produce.

The Central Plan allocation for 2010-11 for the agriculture and allied sectors has been raised by Rs 2,185 crore to Rs 12,185 crore. It was Rs 10,123 crore in 2009-10 (revised estimates).

The food supplies are proposed to be augmented by extending the Green Revolution to the eastern States of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Orissa and eastern-Uttar Pradesh. Rs 400 crore have been set apart for this purpose.

About 60,000 villages are proposed to be selected for devoting exclusive attention to producing more pulses and oilseeds in the dry land areas through better water conservation measures. A sum of Rs 300 crore has been fixed for this scheme.

The 2010-11 target for total credit flow to the farm sector has been raised to Rs 3,75,000 crore from Rs 3,25,000 crore in 2009-10, to improve farmers' access to credit. Besides, the debt waiver and debt relief scheme has been liberalized further by giving the farmers six more months, until June 30, 2010, for repaying the outstanding loans to get a concession on the interest. The interest subvention for the farmers who repay their debts in time has been stepped up from 1 per cent earlier to 2 per cent.

To lend impetus to the food processing sector, five more mega food parks are planned to be set up. These will be in addition to the 10 already being put up for value-addition of farm produce.

Service tax concessions, including exemptions, have been proposed for seed certification and transportation of cereals and pulses.

To sustain Green Revolution areas through conservation farming, which involves attention to soil health, water conservation and preservation of biodiversity, Rs 200 crore has been allocated for launching this climate-resilient agriculture initiative.

Public Debt
The biggest commitment of the government is to reduce public debt. The combined debt of the Centre and the States will be capped at 68 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2014-15, as recommended by the Thirteenth Finance Commission. This is the first time the government will target an explicit reduction in its domestic public debt as a proportion of GDP.

Public Health
Mr Mukherjee raised the healthcare allocation for 2010-11, initiated mapping the country's health profile and gave some tax relief on imported medical equipment. In an announcement of far-reaching importance for public health in India, he said a health profile of all districts will be prepared in 2010. The findings will be fed into major public health initiatives, especially the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), a flagship programme of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

In keeping with its promise of increasing the spending on this sector, Finance Minister proposed to increase the plan allocation for the ministry of health and family welfare from Rs 20,217 crore in 2009-10 (revised estimates) to Rs 23,350 crore in 2010-11, a rise of 15.5 per cent.

The overall allocation for public health has been increased from Rs 1,928 crore in 2009-10 (revised estimates) to Rs 3,181 crore in 2010-11. The NRHM allocation has been raised from Rs 12,096 crore to Rs 13,910 crore. But, that for medical education, training and research has come down slightly from Rs 2,699 crore in 2009-10 (revised) to Rs 2,678 crore in 2010-11.

Given the rapid increase in diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in India, the allocation for programmes related to control and prevention of these diseases have been raised manifold—from Rs 17 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 90 crore in 2010-11.

The minister has also sought to bring some relief for state-of-the-art medical equipment. He announced a uniform, concessional basic duty of five per cent and CVD (countervailing duty) of four per cent, with full exemption from special additional duty on all medical equipment.

Environment
With India committing itself to a goal of 20-25 per cent cuts in its carbon emission intensity by 2020, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a slew of measures to reduce dependence on fossil fuels in the long run and promote clean energy technology, as well as check pollution.

A National Clean Energy Fund for funding research and innovative projects would be established. Finance Minister also proposed a clean energy cess on coal produced in India, as well as on imported coal. 'Polluter pays' will remain the basic criterion, he said in his speech.

In addition, Mr Mukherjee announced a series of customs and excise duty cuts for photovoltaic and solar thermal power units, in keeping with the government's resolve to implement the National Solar Mission.

Central budgetary allocation for the ministry of environment and forests has risen by about 10 per cent, from Rs 2,129 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 2,351 crore in 2010-11. However, the allocation for Project Tiger, a key programme to save the rapidly-dwindling tiger population in the country, has been cut by about Rs 30 crore.

With climate change on top of the government's list of priorities, pollution control has seen a substantial increase in allocation. The allocation for control of river water pollution programmes has gone up.

States to get 32% of gross tax receipts
The Union government has used the Thirteenth Finance Commission's devolution formula to transfer 32 per cent of its budgeted gross tax receipts for 2010-11 to the States, as against 30.5 per cent earlier.

According to the new devolution formula, 35 per cent weight will be given to area and population, fiscal discipline has 17.5 per cent weight with the remaining 47.5 per cent has been given to fiscal capacity distance.

In line with the revised formula, the net proceeds of union taxes and duties is budgeted at Rs 2,08,997 crore during 2010-11, with the Centre's gross total revenue budgeted to rise by 17.94 per cent to Rs 7,46,651 crore during 2010-11, compared with Rs 6,33,095 crore in the revised estimates for 2009-10. The receipts in 2009-10 would, however, be 1.25 per cent lower than the budget estimates of Rs 6,41,079 crore with corporation tax, excise and service collections likely to be lower than what was expected in July 2009.

While Mr Mukherjee has estimated a revenue loss of Rs 26,000 crore on account of income tax concessions, he has budgeted for a net revenue gain of Rs 46,500 crore from indirect taxes.

UID Project
The Nandan Nilekani-headed Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has been allotted an outlay of Rs 1,900 crore for 2010-11, significantly up from Rs 31 crore the authority spent in 2009-10. The UIDAI was set up in 2009 with the intent of providing unique identity (UID) numbers to 1.2 billion people of the country.

The authority would provide an effective platform for financial inclusion and targeted subsidy payments. The first set of UIDs is expected to be issued between August 2010 and February 2011.

The UIDAI has also been roped in by other ministries to manage their resources. The human resource development ministry, for instance, will take the authority's help to introduce educational reforms by using UID to bring the over 8 million 'out of school' children into the education system.

UIDAI plans to issue 600 million UIDs over the next five years but the project, first to its kind, faces several challenges. The first hurdle is the collection of data on everyone. The project will collect data such as iris profiles, biometric prints of 10 fingers, gender, mother and father's names and address, among other details.

Package for Women
The outlay for Women and Child Development has been increased by almost 50 per cent. A mission for empowerment of women is being set up. The ICDS platform is being expanded for effective implementation of the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Adolescent Girls. A Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana to meet the needs of women farmers is being launched, with Rs100 crore.

Energising India through Solar Power
The plan outlay of the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has been increased by 61 per cent, from Rs 620 crore in 2009-10 to Rs 1,000 crore. The government envisages establishing India as a global leader in solar energy, targeting 20,000 MW of solar power by 2022.

Helping the Disabled
An Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre for the benefit of the hearing-impaired is being set up. Also, District Disability Rehabilitation Centres are being set up in 50 additional districts, along with two composite regional centres for persons with disabilities.

Coal Regulatory Authority
A Coal Regulatory Authority is to be established. This will facilitate resolution of issues like economic pricing of coal and benchmarking of standards of performance. It is also proposed to introduce a competitive bidding process for allocating coal blocks for captive mining.

New Action on Internal Security
The Planning Commission will prepare an integrated action plan for areas hit by Left-wing extremism. Adequate funds will be made available for the plan. To build confidence, 2,000 youth will be appointed as constables from J&K in five Central paramilitary forces in 2010.

Special Golden Jubilee Package for Goa
Rs 200 crore has been provided as a Special Golden Jubilee package for Goa, to preserve its natural resources and increase its green cover through sustainable forestry.

Making Ganga cleaner
The allocation for National Ganga River Basin Authority has been doubled to Rs 500 crore. 'Mission Clean Ganga 2020' aims to ensure that no untreated municipal sewage or industrial effluent is discharged into the river.

Alternate Port for West Bengal
Recognising the need for developing an alternate port facility in West Bengal, it is proposed to develop a project at Sagar.

Skill Development Plans
The Prime Minister's Council on National Skill Development has the mission to create 50 crore skilled people by 2022. The government proposes to launch an extensive skill development programme in the textile and garment sector by leveraging the strength of existing institutions and instruments of the Textile Ministry. The ministry plans to train 30 lakh persons over five years.

Defence Outlay Hiked
The Defence budget for 2010-11 is pegged at Rs 147,344 crore, up 8 per cent from the revised estimates of Rs 136,264 crore and four per cent from the budget estimates of Rs 141,703 crore in 2009-10. The armed forces will get around Rs 11,000 crore extra in 2010-11.

Hits and Misses of Union Budget '10

Hits

• Fiscal deficit contained at 5.5%.
• Disinvesment target increased from Rs.30,000 crore to Rs.40,000 crore.
• Curtailment on borrowings at Rs 3,81,409 crore from Rs 3,86,344 crore.
• Increased focus on rural infrastructure to help in inclusive growth of economy.
• Reductions in Individual tax rates to result in more disposable income for individuals.
• Reduction in surcharge on domestic companies to boost bottom-line.
• Decline in subsidy burden to help control fiscal deficit.
• Exhibit 2: Misses for this budget.

Misses

• Oil sector de-regulation.
• Increase in MAT from 15% to 18%.
• Inflation concerns ignored at cost of growth.
• Food inflation left at the mercy of rainfall.
• Limited measures to boost agriculture output.

BUDGET IN A NUTSHELL

• Additional Rs 1,65,000 cr for bank re-capitalisation
• Rs 3000 cr for agricultural impetus
• Farm loan payments to be extended for six months
• Fertilizer subsidy to be reduced
• Rs 100 cr woman farmer fund scheme
• Coal regulatory authority to be set up
• Clean energy fund to be established
• Interest subvention of 2% to be extended for handicrafts and SMEs
• Rs 200 cr for Tamil Nadu textile sector
• Interest subvention for housing loans up to 1 lacs
• Allocation to defence raised to Rs 1.47 lakh cr
• Defence capex raised to Rs 60,000 cr
  
• Divestment target of Rs 25,000 cr
  
• Rs 1200 cr assistance for drought in Bundelkhand
• Rs 48000 cr for Bharat Nirman
• NREGA scheme allocation raised to Rs 41,000 cr
• Allocation to health Rs 22,300 cr
• Allocation for school education up from Rs 26,800 cr to Rs 31036 cr
• Allocation to power sector at Rs 5130 cr
• Rs 10,000 cr allocated for Indira Awaas Yojna
• Social Security Fund to have corpus of over Rs 1000 cr
• Rs 2400 cr for MSMEs
• Government to contribute Rs 1000 per month for pension security
• Rs 5400 cr allocated for urban development
• Rs 66100 cr allocated for rural development
• Rs 1900 cr allocated for UID project
• Gross tax receipts Rs 7.46 lakh cr
• Government to set up National Mission for delivery of justice
• 15% rise in planned expenditure
• Fiscal deficit target of 5.5% in FY11
• Excise on all non smoking tobacco raised
• Televisions to be costlier
• Mobile phones to become cheaper
• Cement to be costlier
• Refrigerators to be costlier
• Jewellery to be more expensive
• Monorail granted project import status
• CDs to be cheaper
• Excise duty on CFL halved to 4%
• Bank farm loan target: Rs 3.75,lakh crore
• Nutrient based fertiliser subsidy scheme to come into force from April 1, 2010
• To build 20 km of highway every day
• Income tax on income upto Rs 1.6 lakh: Nil
• Income tax on income above Rs 1.6 lakh and upto Rs. 5 lakh: 10 per cent
• Income tax on income above Rs.5 lakh and upto Rs. 8 lakh: 20 per cent
• Income tax on income above Rs. 8 lakh 30 per cent