Corporate houses did not get much expect the abolition of the fringe benefit tax, but overall the budget is nicely balanced. Here are some of the highlights.

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