Budget Highlights

-	Minimum Alternate Tax up from 15% to 18% on book profits
-	Fiscal deficit pegged at 5.5% of GDP
-	I-T dept to notify simple two-page Saral 2 form for individuals for current year
-	Personal income tax: Nil for income up to Rs 1.6 lakh, 10% for income bet Rs 1.6 -5 lakh
-	Personal income tax: Income between 5-8 lakh: Tax at 20%
-	Personal income tax: Above Rs 8 lakh, tax at 30%
-	Professionals with Rs 15 lakh income need account audit
-	Partial rollback of excise duty relief on large cars
-	To provide subsidy in cash instead of bonds for fertiliser, oil
-	Customs duty on gold, platinum imports raised to Rs 300 from Rs 200
-	Service tax to GDP ratio is 1%
-	Net revenue gain of Rs 43,500 cr from customs, excise proposal
-	Direct tax proposals result in Rs 26,000 cr loss; indirect tax yield Rs 45,000 cr gain
-	News agencies exempt from service tax
-	Some services hitherto not taxed would be brought under the purview of new Service Tax
-	Service Tax rates unchanged at 10%
-	No import duty on some equipment in road projects
-	Cut in duty for photovoltaic units
-	External commercial borrowing will be available for food storage industries
-	Clean energy cess on domestic, imported coal
-	Peak customs duty remains unchanged at 10%
-	Central excise on LED lights halved to 4%
-	Agricultural seeds exempt from service tax
-	Full excise cut on electric cars
-	For solar mission, solar power generating units rates are to be reduced by 5%
-	Cut on personal tax rates means saving of Rs 50,000 for income up to Rs 8 lakh
-	Partial rollback of excise duty relief on large cars
-	Peak excise duty hiked from 8% to 10%
-	Market borrowing were up to 3,45,000 cr. Enough to meet credit need of private sector
-	Duties on smoking and non-smoking tobacco products up
-	Excise duty on large cars, SUVs, multi utility vehicles hiked
-	Petroleum products: basic excise duty of 5% crude, 7.5% on diesel & petrol; 10% on other products
-	Structural changes in excise duties of tobacco, propose to extend excise duty
-	Revenue loss of Rs 26,000 cr on a/c of direct tax proposals
-	Surcharge for companies reduced to 7.5%
-	Due to direct taxes, result in a revenue loss of Rs 26,000 cr
-	Threshold limit for TDS applicability to be rationalised
-	Extended scope of presumptive taxes up to Rs 40 lac
-	Real estate sector now gets 5 years for completion instead of 4 years before
-	To boost tourism investment, offers investment linked tax deductions
-	Addl Rs20,000 deduction available for investment in infra bonds
-	Reduces current surcharge of 10% on domestic comp to 7.5%
-	Automation of excise, service tax already rolled out
-	FY11 market borrowing pegged at Rs 3.45 lakh cr
-	Govt to set up apex level Financial Stability and Development Council
-	FY13 fiscal deficit seen at 4.1%
-	Fiscal deficit seen at 4.8% in FY12
-	Allocates Rs 1,900 cr for UID project
-	Planned expenditure up 15% over 2009-10
-	Increase in non-planned exp up only 6%
-	Total exp proposed up 8.7% over 2009-10, to Rs 11 lakh cr
-	Taskforce to counter problems in Maoist affected areas. Adequate funds will be allocated
-	Allocation to Defence over Rs 147,000 crore
-	Technology advisory group to be set up under Nandan Nilekani
-	Smart card extended to NREGA
-	RBI to dole out more banking licences: Pranab
-	Sign language training centre for hearing impaired
-	Rs 4,500 cr for program of social justice, sr citizens, backward classes, handicapped
-	Rs 100 cr allocated for women farmers
-	Exclusive skill dev prog in textile and garment sector
-	Rs 48,000 cr for Bharat Nirman plan
-	Asks state govt to contribute for social security to workers in unorganised sector
-	Infra stocks spurt on higher allocation
-	To allocate Rs 22,300 cr to Health Ministry
-	Allocates Rs 100 cr for new pension scheme, to benefit 100,000 low income citizens
-	Khadi institutes get Rs 400 cr
-	GOI sign $150 mn deal with ADB for implementing Khadi programme
-	Rajiv Awas Yojana now ready' gets Rs 1,270 cr for FY11
-	Rs 7300cr in 2011 for backward sections
-	GST, Direct Taxes Code from April 2011
-	Housing loan: 1% interest subvention scheme extended, allocation Rs 700 cr
-	Urban dev allocation up more than 75% to Rs 5400 cr
-	Allocates Rs 1,200 cr for drought mitigation
-	Indira Awas Yojana: allocation up by Rs 10,000 cr
-	NMDC, SVJN stake sale to fetch Rs 25,000 cr in FY10
-	NREGS gets Rs 40,100 cr in FY11
-	Rs66,1000 cr allocateds for rural development in FY11
-	IIFCL disbursements at Rs 9000 cr by March 2010
-	School education outlay for FY11 at Rs 31,000 cr
-	States to get Rs 3,675 cr for primary education at rural level
-	To set up coal regulatory authority
-	Spending on social sector at Rs 137,000 cr
-	Rs 25,000 cr allocated to develop rural infrastructure
-	Growth to exceed 7.2% in this fiscal
-	Final FY10 GDP figure maybe higher than estimate of 7.2%
-	To set up National clean energy fund
-	Plan outlay for Renewable energy ministry up 61%
-	Power allocation doubles to Rs 5,100 cr
-	To set up 5 more mega food park projects
-	Allocation for road tansport Rs 19,894 cr
-	Farm loan repayment extended by 6 months
-	ECB to be available for cold storage
-	To provide Rs 400 cr to boost farm output in eastern India
-	Timely repayment of crop loans: subvention raised from 1% to 2%
-	Govt is committed to growth of SEZ to promote exports
-	Proposes allocation of Rs 200 cr for climate-resilient agricultural program
-	Extend 2% interest subvention for exports for another year
-	FY11 capital for PSU banks at Rs 16,500 cr
-	Extends interest subvention of 2% for handloom, handicrafts for 1 more yr
-	Propose new bill to address problems in corpoate sectors
-	Will augment assistance to RRBs to strengthen rural sector
-	RBI may give license to some more private sector players and NBFCs
-	Rs 1,900 cr addl capital in four PSU banks
-	Ownership and control clearly defined in FDI policy
-	To discuss Kirit Parikh report in due course
-	Subsidy for fertiliser sector to increase farm productivity
-	Govt to raise Rs 25,000 cr this year to meet cap expenditure requirements
-	GST and DTC can be introduced in April 2011
-	Steps to reduce public debt, paper to be presented in 6 months
-	Signs of food inflation going to non-food items
-	Need to review stimulus, move to fiscal consolidation
-	Double digit food inflation in 2009
-	Export figures encouraging; pvt investments can be expected
-	Concerned over emergence of double digit food inflation
-	18.9% growth rate in manufacturing sector in 2009
-	Final figure may be higher if earnings in last quarters are strong
-	Need to make recovery
-	Growth slows down to 6% in Q3 vs 7.9% in Q2 this fiscal
-	Focus shifts to non-governmental actors
-	3rd challenge: relates to problems in government system
-	2nd challnge: harden economic growth to make dev more inclusive
-	1st challenge: quickly revert to higher GDP growth path of 9%, cross double digit growth
-	Economy is in a better position than a year ago, however, challenges remain
-	Uncertainity was there on account of delay in monsoon, concerns about production and food prices
-	Pranab Mukherjee starts announcing Union Budget
-	Bond yields steady ahead of Budget Source: BS News