Indian Union Budget 2009: Highlights & Report

The much hyped and highly anticipated Indian Union Budget is finally out in open. The Stock Markets have not taken too kindly to Pranab Mukherjee’s Budget and saw one of the biggest falls on a Budget day – 870 points to be precise.

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This time around Government had a great chance of announcing a reformist budget that would put India on serious growth path, as there were no left parties trying to hold them at ransom for every liberal decision they made. but alas…

If you had to explain the budget in one line, what would you say?

I’d call it:

A pro rural budget catering to masses but without clear reformist path

Now that is my personal judgment, and some may agree with it but some may not.

The reason I was disappointed was because, there was no mention of couple of extremely important points like

• How fiscal deficit projected at 6.8% would be brought down
• how India will get much needed Foreign Direct Investment and Policy changes in Public – Private ownership of PSU’s
• How the languishing IT & BPO Industry would be resurrected.

On another note, Pranab also lacked complete Charisma of presenting a budget, it could have seriously packaged well- but came across extremely bland one.

But it was not totally a disaster, there were few important things like Fringe Benefit Tax was abolished and Income tax exemption was increased, although marginally.

Here are the Complete Highlights of Budget

• Fiscal deficit up from 2.7 6.2% to 6.8% of GDP
• ‘Aam admi’ is focus of all programmes and schemes .
• IT exemption limit raised; Rs 15,000 for Sr.citizens
• Limit raised by Rs 10,000 for tax payers, including women
• 10% surcharge on personal income tax scrapped
• Fringe Benefit Tax abolished
• No change in corporate tax
• Defence gets Rs 1,41,703 cr, up 34%
• Total fiscal stimulus in 2008-09 amounts to Rs 1,86,000 cr
• IIFCL to evolve mechanism for increased funding of infra
• IIFCL to re-finance commercial bank loans up to 60 per cent in critical objects through PPP to tune of Rs 1,00,000 cr
• Allocations for highways being stepped up by 23 per cent
• Funds for housing, amenities for urban poor up Rs 3,973 cr
• Funds for JN Urban Renewal Mission up 87% to Rs 12,887 cr
• Assistance for storm-water drainage project up by Rs 300 cr
• Farm credit target up at Rs 3,25,000 cr from Rs 2,87,000 cr
• Interest rates incentive to farmers to repay loans on time
• Additional Rs 1,000 crore for accelerated irrigation scheme
• Export Credit Guarantee scheme extended till March 2010 * 2% interest subvention (IS) scheme extended till March 2010
• IS scheme to cover 7 job-oriented sectors, including textile, handicrafts and handlooms.
• Commodity Transaction Tax abolished
• New pension system trust exempted from STT; DDT
• Minimum Alternate Tax hiked to 15% from 10%
• Tax holiday on petro sector extended to natural gas
• 100% tax deduction on political donation
• Stimulus for print media for another six months
• Fertiliser subsidy to be nutrient-based, not price
• Expert Grp to form viable pricing for imported petro goods
• Banks and insurance firms to remain in public sector
• Rs 100 cr one-time grant to expand banks in unbanked areas
  Govt committed to provide Rs 100 a day as wages under NREGA
• Allocation of Rs 39,100 cr to be made for NREGA
• NREGA coverage increased to 4.74 crore households in FY’09
• Work National Food Security scheme has begun
• Allocation for Bharat Nirman being raised by 45 per cent
• Rs 2,000 cr rural housing fund under National Housing Bank
• Mission for female literacy with focus on minorities, SC/ST * 50% of all rural women to be brought into SHG programmes
• Full interest subsidy for students in select institutions
• Five lakh students to benefit
• Modernization of national employment exchanges
• Action for social security to unorganized sector workers
• New pension benefits for 12 lakh jawans and JCOs from July
• One lakh dwelling units for paramilitary forces personnel
• Unique Identification Card to citizens in 12-18 months
• Provision of Rs 120 crore for UIC project
• Rs 2,113 crore allocated for IITs and new IITs
• Rs 3472 cr for Commonwealth Games from Rs 2112 cr
• Customs, excise and service tax base rates unchanged
• For Indira Awas Yojana, allocation increased 63%
• Incom Tax returns to be made simpler
• 8 missions being launched under Plan on climate change
• Allocation for market development assistance scheme up 148%
• Allocation for Rural Health Mission raised by Rs 257 cr above interim budget
• Rs 500 cr for rehabilitation of Sri Lankan Tamils
• Rs 1,000 cr for infrastructure in cyclone-hit area in WB
• Total expenditure crosses Rs 10 lakh crore in history of India for first time.
• Share of direct taxes in revenue increased to 56% in FY’09

Here is a pdf that will give you a complete overview and detailed highlights of Indian Union Budget 2009

Author: Arun Prabhudesai

Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.

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Tagged as: 2009 budget highlights, Budget Analysis, budget in India, Budget points, Indian Union Budget 2009, Overview of India budget, Pranab Mukherjee, simplified budget, Union Budget Highlights