Friday, 1 March 2013

Union Budget 2013-14 Highlights

Finance Minister P.Chidambaram has submitted his 8th Union Budget this year , let us see some of its
highlights


Leather products get cheaper
Mobile phones, dinning out, cigarettes, SUVs, motorbikes, set-up boxes get expensive
Excise duty on cigarettes raised by 18 per cent
Mobile Phones, SUVs to get more expensive
 Duty free limit for Gold raised to Rs. 50,000 in case of a male passenger and Rs. 1 lakh for female
passengers
 Tax credit of Rs. 2000 for every person who has an annual income of upto Rs. 5 lakh
 Rs. 1000-crore Nirbhaya Fund(named after the Delhi Rape Victim) announced for the empowerment of
women
 All Regional Rural Banks and cooperative banks to be e-linked by this year-end
 National Housing Bank (NHB) to set up urban housing bank fund and Rs. 2,000 crore will be allocated
in this regard
 Rs. 14,000 crore capital infusion will be made into public sector banks in 2013-14
 Publicsector banks to have ATMs at all their branches by March 31, 2014
 Rs. 6,000 crore to be allocated for rural housing fund in 2013-14
 Allocation to defence increased to Rs. 2.03 lakh crore
 Rs. 6,275 crore to ministry of science and technology, Rs. 5,880 crore to Department of Atomic Energy
 Coal imports during Apr-Dec 2012 crossed 100 million tonnes and expected to go up to 185 million
tonnes in 2016-17
 Finance Minster asks state governments to prepare financial restructuring plan for power distribution
companies at the earliest.
 Simpler SEBI rules:Securities and Exchange Board of India to simplify procedures for foreign
portfolio investors
 Two new ports to be set up in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh to ad 100 million tonnes handling
capacity
 Gas handling terminal at Dabhol in Maharashtra to be fully operational during 2013-14
 State governments urged to sign restructuring plans with electricity discoms
 Tax-free infrastructure bonds of Rs.50,000 crore to be issued
 Textile ministry allocated Rs.50 crore for establishing apparel parks
 Handloom sector allocated Rs.96 crore to benefit 150,000 weavers
 Infrastructure debt funds to be encouraged
 Regulator to be appointed for road projects; 3,000 km of road projects to be awarded in first six months
of 2013-14
 Incentive allowance of 15 percent over and above permitted depreciation to those investing over Rs.100
crore in infrastructure projects
 Rajiv Gandhi Equity Scheme to be liberalised
 Seven new cities identified along Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor
 Preliminary work begun on Bangalore-Mumbai Industrial corridor
Foodgrain production during 2013-13 estimated at 250 million tonnes
 Household sector must be incentivised to save in financial instruments rather than gold. Person taking a
home loan for his first home during the period 2013-14 will be entitled to an additional deduction of Rs.
1 lakh, announces Mr Chidambaram
 Re-financing capacity of SIDBI increased to Rs. 10,000 crore from Rs. 5,000 crore for Ministry of Small
and Medium Enterprises
 Rs. 27,049 crore allocation to the Agriculture Ministry in 2013-14
 Rs. 7 lakh crore target fixed for agriculture credit for 2013-14 compared to Rs. 5.75 lakh crore in the
current year.
 Eastern Indian states to get Rs. 1,000 crore allocation for improving agricultural production
 Infrastructure Development Funds will be encouraged
 Funds to raise resources for the development
 Govt committed to food security bill. 10,000 crores set apart for expenditure likely under the act
 Rs. 37,330 crore allocated for Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
 Rs. 110 crore to be allocated to the department of disability affairs
 Rs. 3511 crore allocated to Minority Affairs Ministry which is 60 per cent of the revised estimates
 Additional sum of Rs. 200 crore to Women and Child Welfare
 Ministry to address issues of vulnerable women
 Rs. 37,330 crore allocated for Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
 Faced with huge fiscal deficit, I have no choice but to rationalise expenditure
 Development must be sustainable - economically and ecologically
 Cannot spurn foreign investments, that is an imperative
 Great worry is the current account deficit
 Without growth, there will be neither development nor inclusiveness
 The job of a finance minister is to create the economic space and find resources to achieve it
 Only China and Indonesia growing faster than India
 By 2013 only China will grow faster than India