Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is presenting his 7th Federal Budget in the parliament. He started with, “Madam Speaker Sir, I rise to present the Union Budget 2012-13”. Below are the highlights of the Union Budget, updated frequently
- Â Income tax to be levied at 10% for individuals with income from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh, 20% for individuals with income from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and 30% for individuals with income of Rs 10 lakh and above
- Deduction of up to Rs.10,000 from interest from savings bank accounts.
- No change in corporate taxes but measures to enable them better access funds
- Witholding tax on external commercial borrowings reduced from 20 percent to five percent for power, airlines, roads, bridges, affordable houses and fertiliser sectors.
- Defence to get Rs.1.93 lakh crore during 2012-13.
- National Skill Development Fund allocated Rs.1,000 crore.
- Four thousand residential quarters to be constructed for paramilitary forces with an allocation of Rs.1,185 crore.
- National Population Register to be completed in two years.
- Number of proactive steps taken on black money (stashed away abroad); information has started flowing in, prosecution to be initiated; White Paper in current session.
- Allocation of Rs.200 crore for research on climate change.
- Irrigation and water resource company to be operationalized.
- National mission on food processing to be started in cooperation with state governments.
- Integrated Child Development Scheme to be strengthened and restructured with allocation of Rs.15,850 crore.
- Allocation of Rs.14,000 crore for rural water supply and sanitation.
- Infusion of Rs.15,888 crore in public sector banks, regional rural banks and NABARD in 2012-13.
- Infrastructure will require Rs.50 lakh crore in 12th Plan, half of this from the private sector.
- Completion of highway projects 44 percent higher than in previous fiscal.
- External commercial borrowing of up to $1 billion permitted for airline sector.
- External commercial borrowing permitted to low-cost housing sector.
- From 2012-13, full subsidies for providing food security; in other sectors to the extent the economy can bear this.
- Hope to raise Rs.30,000 crore from disinvestments.
- New equity savings scheme to provide for income tax deduction of 50 percent for those who invest Rs.50,000 in equity and whose annual income is less than Rs.10 lakh.
- Corporate market reforms to be initiated.
- Bills on micro-finance institutions, national land bank and public debt management among those to be introduced in 2012-13.
- Personal income tax exemption limit raised to Rs 2 lakh for individual tax payers
- Duty on luxury cars hiked to 27 per cent b
- To introduce Rajiv Gandhi Equity Scheme
- Qualified foreign investors will enter bond marketÂ
- Direct cash subsidy to be given for oil and kerosene
- Propose Rs 60,000 crore for infrastructure developmentÂ
- Fiscal 2011-12 year of recovery interrupted; reality turned out to be different.
- Efforts will be targeted at leakage proof availability of subsidies
- Average crude price likely to exceed 115 dollars per barrel in 2012Â
- Subsidies to be under 2% of GDP
- Â Rs 30,000 crore to be raised by disinvestment
- India’s GDP growth in 2012-13 expected at 7.6%Â
- Agriculture and services continue to perform well and slowdown can be attributed to slow manufacturing industry
- Current account deficit to be 3.6%