BOTANY: Union Budget 2011 Highlights

Union Budget 2011 Highlights

Standard rate of excise duty held at 10 percent; no change in CENVAT rates.
Personal income tax exemption limit raised to Rs 180,000 from Rs 160,000 for individual tax payers.
For senior citizens, the qualifying age reduced to 60 years and exemption limit raised to Rs 2.50 lakh.
Citizens over 80 years to have exemption limit of Rs 5 lakh.
To reduce surcharge on domestic companies to 5 percent from 7.5 percent.
A new revised income tax return form 'Sugam' to be introduced for small tax papers.
raise minimum alternate tax to 18.5 percent from 18 percent.
Iron ore export duty raised to 20 percent
Nominal one per cent central excise duty on 130 items entering the tax net. Peak rate of customs duty maintained at 10 per cent in view of the global economic situation.
Service tax widened to cover hotel accommodation above Rs 1,000 per day, A/C restaurants serving liquor, some category of hospitals, diagnostic tests.
Service tax on air travel increased by Rs 50 for domestic travel and Rs 250 for international travel in economy class. On higher classes, it will be ten per cent flat.
Works of art exempt from customs when imported for exhibition in state-run institutions; this now extended to private institutions.

Subsidy bill in 2011-12 seen at 1.44 trillion rupees.
Food subsidy bill in 2011-12 seen at 605.7 billion rupees.
Revised food subsidy bill for 2010-11 at 606 billion rupees.
Revised fertilizer subsidy bill for 2010-11 at 550 billion rupees.
Revised petroleum subsidy bill in 2010-11 at 384 billion rupees.
State-run oil retailers to be provided with 200 billion rupee cash subsidy in 2011-12.

Gross tax receipts seen at 9.32 trillion rupees in 2011-12.
Non-tax revenue seen at 1.25 trillion rupees in 2011-12.
Corporate tax receipts seen at 3.6 trillion rupees in 2011-12.
Tax-to-GDP ratio seen at 10.4 percent in 2011-12; seen at 10.8 percent in 2012-13.
Customs revenue seen at 1.52 trillion rupees in 2011-12.
Service tax receipts seen at 820 billion rupees in 2011-12.

Disinvestment in 2011-12 seen at 400 billion rupees.
Government committed to retaining 51 percent stake in public sector enterprises.

Net market borrowing for 2011-12 seen at 3.43 trillion rupees, down from 3.45 trillion rupees in 2010-11.
Gross market borrowing for 2011-12 seen at 4.17 trillion rupees.
Revised gross market borrowing for 2010-11 at 4.47 trillion rupees.

To create infrastructure debt funds.
FDI policy being liberalized.
To boost infrastructure development with tax-free bonds of 300 billion rupees.
Food security bill to be introduced.
To permit SEBI registered mutual funds to access subscriptions from foreign investments.
Raised foreign institutional investor limit in 5-year corporate bonds for investment in infrastructure by $20 billion.
Setting up independent debt management office; Public debt bill to be introduced in parliament soon.
Bills on insurance, pension funds, banking to be introduced.

To allocate more than 1.64 trillion rupees to defence sector in 2011-12.
Corpus of rural infrastructure development fund raised to 180 billion rupees in 2011-12.
To provide 201.5 billion rupees capital infusion in state-run banks in 2011-12.
To allocate 520.5 billion rupees for the education sector. Rs.21,000 crore for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
To raise health sector allocation to 267.6 billion rupees.
Rs.500 crore more for national skill development fund.
Rs.54 crore each for AMU (Aligarh Muslim University) centres at Murshidabad and Mallapuram.
Rs.58,000 crore for Bharat Nirman; increase of Rs.10,000 crore.
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme wage rates linked to consumer price index; will rise from existing Rs.100 per day.
Infrastructure critical for development; 23 percent higher allocation in 2011-12.

Removal of supply bottlenecks in the food sector will be in focus in 2011-12.
To raise target of credit flow to agriculture sector to 4.75 trillion rupees.
3 percent interest subsidy to farmers in 2011-12.
Cold storage chains to be given infrastructure status.
Capitalisation of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) of 30 billion rupees in a phased manner.
To provide 3 billion rupees for 60,000 hectares under palm oil plantation.
Food storage capacity to be augmented; 15 more mega food parks to be set up in 2011-12; of 30 sanctioned in previous fiscal, 15 set up.
Comprehensive policy on further developing PPP (public-private-partnership) model.

To move towards direct transfer of cash subsidy for kerosene, LPG and fertilizers.
Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission, headed by former Supreme Court judge B. Srikrishna, to complete its work in 24 months; to overhaul financial regulations.
Five-fold strategy against black money; 13 new double taxation avoidance agreements; foreign tax division of CTBT strengthened; strength of Enforcement Directorate increased three-fold.
Bill to be introduced to review Indian Stamp Act.
New coins carrying new rupee symbol to be issued.
Anganwadi workers salary raised from Rs.1,500 to Rs.3,000.
Housing loan limit for priority sector lending raised to Rs.25 lakh.

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