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Budget: FM Has "Put His Hand Where His Mouth Is" |
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Written by Smita Raghav
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Monday, 06 July 2009 |
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MONDAY, July 6, (News Locale) - Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was the cynosure of all eyes on July 6 as he presented the full Union Budget for the year 2009-10. With the worldwide economic recession hitting India as well, nobody expected Mr Mukherjee to make extravagant gestures to the stock markets or even the international investor and this indeed proved to be the case.
Mr Mukherjee stuck to the mantra of having got a mandate for "inclusive growth" and his proposals for this year amply reflect that. His target to return India to 9% growth rate was welcomed by one and all, but most corporate honchos voiced a worry over exactly where the money for all these ventures was going to come from.
Highlights of Budget 2009-10
Tax Proposals
* Target growth rate of 9%
* Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) abolished
* Personal Income Tax exemption limit for senior citizens raised by Rs 15,000, for women and others by Rs 10,000 each
* The exemption limit will now be Rs 240,000 for senior citizens, Rs 190,000 for women and Rs 160,000 for others
* Corporate tax remains unchanged
* Commodities Transaction Tax abolished
* Minimum Alternate Tax on book profits increased to 15% from 10%.
* Early introduction of Saral 2 forms
* Presumptive Taxation of 8% on businesses having turnover of Rs 40 lakh and above
* Small businesses having turnover of up to Rs 40 lakh exempted from filing advance tax returns
* Goods and Services Tax to be introduced from April 1, 2010
Outlay for social schemes
* Create 12 million new jobs each year
* Reduce poverty by 50% by 2014
* Rs 3937 crore set aside for improvement of urban poor
* Allocation for Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission raised by 87% to Rs.12,887 crore
* Rs.1,000 crore allotted to accelerate irrigation projects
* Rs 2,000 crore set aside for rural housing fund under National Housing Bank
* Allocation to be increased by 63 per cent in 2009-10 to Rs 8,800 crore for Indira Awas Yojana
* 45% increase in allocation for Bharat Nirman progamme
* Rashtriya Mahila Kosh funds to be raised from Rs 100 crore to Rs 500 crore
* Allocation for National Rural Health Mission to be raised by Rs 257 crore above the outlay proposed in the interim budget
* Allocation of railways increased to 15,800 crore
* Outlay for agriculture development fund increased from Rs.2.87 lakh crore to Rs.3.25 lakh crore
* NREGA coverage increased from 3.39 crore households in 2007-08 to 4.74 crore households in 2008-09
Overall Mr Mukherjee has not bothered with the stock markets and India Inc. He has launched upon a venture to keep his party's pre-election promise of inclusive growth for India and indeed has lived up to the promise.
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