The following are some of the important Highlights of the Indian Union Budget for the year 2011-12, presented by the Indian Union Finance Minister Mr.Pranab Mukherjee on 28th February 2011 in the Parliament of India:-
Income Tax:-
- Income Tax Exemption Limit has been raised from Rs 1.60 lakhs to Rs 1.80 lakhs.
- Income Tax Exemption Limit for Senior Citizens has been increased from Rs 2.4 lakhs to Rs 2.5 lakhs and age bracket reduced from 65 years to 60 years.
- Some categories of salaried people exempted from filing I-T returns.
- Surcharge on companies to come down from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent
Customs Duty/Excise:-
- Customs duty on mobile phones has been reduced,
- Excise duty on hybrid car kits will be reduced,
- 10 per cent excise duty has been imposed on branded garments
- Basic customs duty on silk decreased from 30 per cent to 5 per cent.
- Excise on fossil fuels has been decreased from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent.
Service Tax:-
- Rate of Service tax will remain at -10%.
- Service tax on Air-Conditioned Restaurants has been raised
Funds Provisions/Allocations/Grants:-
- Rs 300 crores will be provided as assistance to States for Modernising and Stamps & Registration administration.
- Allocation for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan increased by 40 per cent to Rs 21,000 crore.
- Under integrated action plan for Naxal-affected areas, 60 districts to get development grant of Rs 25 Crores to 30 Crores.
- Rs 200 Crores for development of IIT Kharagpur.
- Rs 8,000 Crores has been allocated for North – East Development and Rs 28,000 crored for Jammu & Kashmir.
- International award of Rs 1 Crore has been instituted for promoting universal brotherhood in memory of “Rabindranath Tagore”
- Rs 200 Crores for cleaning up lakes and rivers other than the Ganga.
- Rs 58,000 Crores will be allocated for ‘Bharat Nirman Projects’
- Rs.164,415 Crores will be allocated for ‘Defence’ and even more will be allocated if required
Social Welfare/Rural Development:-
- Old age pension to persons of over the age of 80 years has been raised from Rs 200 to Rs 500.
- Rs 9 lakh compensation to be given to men of Defence and Central paramilitary forces for permanent disability and discharged from service.
- Aanganwadi workers’ pay has been raise from Rs 1500 to Rs 3000 per month.
- Expenditure on social projects increased by 17 per cent.
- Allocation to Education- Sector has been increased to Rs 57,057 Crores.
- It has been proposes to raise Housing Loan Limit from Rs 20 lakhs to Rs 25 lakhs from Priority Sector Lending.
- Low-Cost Housing Loans of Rs 15 lakhs will get 1% interest sop.
- Rural housing funds allocation to be raised from Rs 2,000 Crores to Rs 3,000 Crores.
- 24% Increase in Educational Outlay- And Rs.21,000 Crores will be allocated for “Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan”.
- Rs.500 Crores- more will be allocated for National Skill Development Fund.
- Rs 100 Crorers will be provided for Microfinance Companies.
- Rs.54 Crores, each will be allocated for Aligarh Muslim University Centres at Murshidabad and Mallapuram.
Agriculture & Food:-
- Food security bill to be introduced this year.
- Farmers’ credit flow will be Rs 4.75 Lakhs- Crores.
- Measures will be taken to increase the Storage Capacity of Food Grains by 150 lakhs Metric-Tonnes.
- 15 new Mega Food -Parks will be created for better food distribution.
- Banks will be asked to step up ‘ Farm-Ccredit and help ‘marginal farmers’.
- Target for credit flow to farmers has been increased from Rs 375000 Crores to Rs 475000 Crores.
Textiles Industry:-
- Rs 3,000 Crores will be provided to “NABARD” for helping 15,000 cooperatives and 3 lakhs ‘handloom- weavers’.
Targets:-
In the current year Growth in the following sectors are expected to be achieved:-
- overall economy at 8.6 %,
- agriculture at 5.4 %, industry at 8.1 % and
- services 9.3%.
