Budget Sparks

Thebullishtrends: Union Budget for 08-09 presented in the Parliament in few minutes back. These are some of the highlights of the Budget poposals:
Banking transaction tax to be removed; STT applicable on commodities trading; Tax on short term capital gains increased to 15% from 10%;

Income Tax Limits :

Hikes tax-free income from Rs 1,10,000 to Rs 1,50,000; 10% tax on income from Rs 1,50,000 to Rs 3,00,000; 20% tax on income from Rs 3,00,000 to Rs 5,00,000; 30% tax on income over Rs 5,00,000; Women exemption increases from Rs 1,45,000 to Rs 1,80,000; Senior citizen exemption increases from Rs 1,95,000 to Rs 2,25,000; Service tax limited hiked to Rs 10 lakh.Excise on two-wheelers reduced from 16% to 12%; Reduced general CENVAT from 16% to 14%.

Budget proposals :
*Service tax limited hiked to Rs 10 lakh.
*Excise on two-wheelers reduced from 16% to 12%
*Reduced general CENVAT from 16% to 14%
*Duties on iron ore exports increased to Rs 3,000/tn
*Project import customs duty reduced from 7.5% to 5%; Steel melting scrap and aluminium scrap made nil; Life saving drugs customs duty from 10% to 5%;
*No change in peak rate of customs duty;
*Revenue deficit at 1.4% against budget estimate of 1.5%; To eliminate revenue deficit in FY10; Fiscal deficit at 3.1% against budget estimate of 3.3%; Plan expenditure Rs 2,43,386 crore;
*Defence allocation increased from Rs 96,000cr to Rs 1,05,600 crore; Food subsidies at Rs 32,667 crore;
*Exchange-traded currencies; interest rate derivatives to be introduced;
*TUF to increase to Rs 1,090 crore; Rural Infrastructure Development Fund increased to Rs 14,000 crore;
*Saving rate at 35.6%, investment rate at 36.3 %;
*Rs 1,000cr to be placed with LIC for covering an additional 1cr landless households; PAN to be extended for all transactions in financial markets, subject to suitable threshold.
*Coal regulator to be set up; GQ completed 96.48%, National fund for transmission and distribution.
*To continue with fertiliser subsidies, may move to nutrient-based subsidies; Rs 20,000 crore allocated for irrigation; Agricultural credit at Rs 2,80,000 crore; To mobilse Rs 10,000cr for plan capital expenditure;
*JNURM to get Rs 6,866cr in 2008-09 from Rs 5,482cr in 07-08;
*Govt to interconnect all national institutions on a knowledge network; Govt to establish 16 central universities; 3 IITs in Bihar, AP and Rajasthan;
* 2008-09 should be a year of consolidation; We can do better to achieve inclusive growth; The government will manage capital inflows along with RBI;
* Total agricultural output 219.32 million tonne. Agriculture growth rate at 2.6% in 2007-08