New Delhi: Finance Minister P. Chidambaram today prefaced
his much anticipated budget 2013 proposals by spelling out what he called his
government's mantra: "higher growth leading to inclusive, sustainable
development".
Budget 2013-14 caps an intensive seven-month campaign by the energetic Mr Chidambaram, who was appointed last August, to turn around the fortunes of Asia's third-largest economy after years of policy drift and global economic turmoil.
Here are the highlights of his speech:
- Surcharge
of 10% on persons whose taxable income exceeds Rs. 1 crore
- The current slabs were introduced last year. Hence, there is no
case of revision, says Chidambaram
- Tax
Administraion Reforms Commission to be set up to review tax laws
- TDS of 1 per cent on land deals over Rs. 50
lakh
- I
belive there is a little bit of the spirit of Mr Azim Premji in every
affluent tax payer, says Chidambaram
- Faced
with huge fiscal deficit, India had no choice but to rationalise expenditure
- India
faces challenge of getting back to its potential growth rate of 8 pct
- India
must unhesitatingly embrace growth as highest goal
- Excise duty on certain SUVs hiked to 30 per cent
- Specific excise duty on cigarettes increased by 18 per cent
- On mobile phones priced at more than Rs.
2000, excise duty hiked to 6 per cent
- Only
China and Indonesia growing faster than India
- Plan
expenditure pegged at Rs.
555,322 crore
- Non-plan
expenditure pegged at Rs.
11,09,975 crore for 2013-14
- Revised
estimate for total expenditure is Rs. 14.3 trillion in 2012/13, which is 96 pct of
budget estimate
- India's
greater worry is the current account deficit - will need more than $75
billion this year and next year to fund deficit
- Food
inflation is worrying, will take all steps to augment supply side
- Government
has decided to constitute a regulator for the road sector
- 3000
km of road projects to be awarded in the first six months
- Refinancing
capacity of SIDBI increased to Rs. 10,000 cr from Rs. 5,000 cr for MSMEs
- Household
sector must be incentivised to save in financial instruments rather than
gold
- Person
taking a loan for his first home during the period 2013-14 will be
entitled to an additional deduction of Rs. 1 lakh
- Excise rate, service tax rate unchanged
- Allocation
to defence spending up 4.5 per cent at Rs. 2.03 trillion
- Cabinet
committee on investment set up to monitor stalled projects and guide
decision making
- Govt
committed to food security bill. Rs. 10,000 crore set apart for expenditure likely
under the Act
- Clean
drinking water and sanitation to get Rs. 15,260 crore
- Rs. 1,400 crore to set up water
purification plants to fight fluoride affected areas
- Oil
and gas policy will be reviewed and changed from a profit-sharing
structure to a revenue sharing structure
- Natural
gas pricing policy will be reviewed
- NELP
projects that were stalled will be cleared
- A
PPP policy framework is being devised with Coal India as a partner to
provide coal to power producers. The Coal Ministry is working on it.
- Non
tax benefits to SME units to remain for 3 years after they outgrow from
the category
- SIDBI's
refinancing capacity increased to Rs. 10,000 crore
- PSU
banks to get Rs.
14,000 capital infusion in FY14
- Proposal
to set up India's first women's bank as a PSU bank; initial capital to be Rs. 1,000 crore
- Company
investing Rs. 100
crore or more between now and 2015 will be entitled to deduct an
investment allowance of 15 per cent in addition to depreciation
- 2
new ports to be set up in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh
- Insurance
companies can open branches in Tier II cities without prior approval of
IRDA
- KYC
of banks will be sufficient to acquire insurance policies, banks to act as
brokers
- The
Insurance Law Amendment Bill and the PFRDA Bill are before the House, hope
it gets passed in this session, says Chidambaram
- FY13 fiscal deficit estimated at 5.2 per cent; FY14 fiscal deficit
estimated at 4.8 per cent
- A
proposal to amend the SEBI Act to strengthen the regulator is under
consideration, says the Finance Minister
- 10
per cent stake or less will be treated as FII, and stake of more than 10
to be treated as FDI
- Nirbhaya fund set up with an allocation of Rs.
1,000 crore set up to ensure safety and security of women
- FIIs
can participate in Exchange Traded Currency Derivatives
- Chidambaram:
Rs.
6,275 cr allocated to Ministry of Science and Technology; Rs. 5,880 cr to Department of
Atomic Energy
- All
cities with population of more than 1 lakh to be covered with FM radio
services
- 11
lakh beneficiaries have received benefit under Direct Benefit Transfer
scheme: FM
- Rs. 5,87,082 crore to be
transferred to states under share of taxes and non-plan grants in 2013-14,
says FM
- Rs. 532 crore to make post
offices part of core banking
- National
Institute for Sports to train coaches to be set up at Patiala at a cost of
Rs. 250
crore
- Grant
of Rs. 100
crore each to AMU (Aligarh), BHU (Varanasi) and TISS (Guwahati) and
INTACH.
- By
2025 we can become a $5 trillion economy. What we can become...the choice
is ours, says Chidambaram
- Import
duty on rice bran oilcake withdrawn
- No
change in basic customs duty rate of ten per cent and service tax rate of
12 per cent
- Direct
Taxes Code (DTC) bill to be introduced in current Parliament session: FM
- No
change in peak rate of customs duty for non-agriculture products
- Modified
GAAR norms to be introduced from April 1, 2016
- Commodities
transaction tax levied on non-agriculture
- Commodities
futures contracts at 0.01 per cent: FM
