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| Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram arrives at Parliament House along with the Minister of State for Finance, S.S. Palanimanickam to present the General Budget 2013-14 |
The federal budget gives a hint that the government
now cannot afford to alienate middle class and poor, already facing heat of
inflation with next general elections round the corner. Hence, it proposes to
pump more funds in UPA flagship programmes like MNREGA, JNNURM while claiming
that the UPA is committed to bring Food Security bill in the Parliament.
Some of the vital announcements made in the budget:
·
Nirbhaya Fund of Rs 1,000 crore -- women and girl child related schemes
·
Rs 150 crore proposed for health
scheme for old. Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy to be mainstreamed
·
Education to get Rs 65,867 crore, 17 per cent more than last year's RE. Aligarh, Varanasi universities
get Rs 100 crore
·
Mid-day meal scheme will get Rs 13,215 crore; Child
development scheme to get Rs
17,700 crore
·
MNREGS to get about Rs 33,000 crore
·
Rural Development
Schemes to get Rs 80,194 crore
·
Agriculture sector to get Rs 24,049 crore
·
Mobile phones priced over Rs 2,000 to attract 6 per cent duty
·
Defence allocation increased to Rs 2,03,672 crore
·
Tax free bonds in 2013-14 up to Rs 50,000 crore
·
Income limit for tax-savings
under Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme has been raised to Rs 12 lakh from Rs
10 lakh
·
PSU banks will have ATMs in all their branches by 2014. India's first public sector bank
for women proposed with Rs
1,000 crore as initial capital
·
Private FM channels to reach
294 new cities, 839 new channels to be auctioned in 2013-14. All cities with
over one lakh population will be covered by private channels
·
Service tax on all A/C
restaurants with over 2,000 sq ft proposed
·
Royalty tax hiked from 10%
to 25%
·
Import duty on set-top boxes increased to
10% from 5%
·
Import duty on raw silk increased to
15% from 5%
·
Taxing the rich further: Duty on
imported goods like motor vehicles, yatchs and motor cycles increased
·
Equalise duty on grades of
coal. 2% Customs and CVD duty on coal
·
Duty free limit on gold increased to
Rs 50,000 for male passengers and Rs 1 lakh to female passengers
·
Cigarettes hit with an 18%
rise in excise duty. So also cigars and cheroots
·
Excise duties on personal SUVs increased
Excise duty on SUVs hiked to 30 per cent from 27 per cent. No duty on those
used as taxi
·
No CVD on imported parts -- for shipbuilding
·
All silver to attract excise of 4 per cent
·
Surcharge of 10% on people
with taxable income of Rs 1 crore or more. Only 42,800 persons with taxable
income of over Rs 1 crore. Higher surcharge for only FY 2013
·
Tax slabs remain unchanged
Main opposition party, the BJP
has termed the Chidambaram’s eighth budget as ‘accountant’s work’ saying it
does not offer anything for manufacturing industries and agriculture sector,
the main drivers of economic growth. Leader of opposition Sushma Swaraj said that
the budget has nothing for creation of employment for youths. The party also
called the budget a ‘verbose’ without any substance.
"The budget is
verbose but on substance, extremely low," said leader of opposition in the
Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
lauded Chidambaram for presenting a ‘commendable’ budget.