Highlights of Budget 2010-11

TAX RELATED

• Income up to Rs.1.6 lakh per year exempt from income tax; up to Rs.5 lakh to be taxed at 10 percent; income of Rs.5-8 lakh to be taxed at 20 percent and income above Rs.8 lakh to be taxed at 30 percent.
• Additional Deduction of Rs 20,000 towards Infrastructure Bonds u/s 80C.
• Home loans up to Rs 20 lakh to get 1 per cent subvention up to March 2011.
• MAT increased from 15% to 18%.
• Surcharge on domestic companies reduced to 7.5% from 10%.
• Tax audit limit raised for Business to 60 lacs & profession to Rs 15 lakh.
• Penalty for not getting tax audit done in time raised from 1 lac to 1.50 lac.
• Limits for TDS raised. Payments to Contractors & Professionals & Rent by 50%.  Brokerage limit doubled  to 5,000/-.
• TDS/TCS Certificates to continue beyond 1-4-2010 also.
• No disallowance of expense if TDS deposited before due date of filing ITR.
• Rate on interest for delay in depositing of TDS raised from 1% to 1.50% p.m.
• IT returns forms for individual tax payers to be further simplified. Saral 2 introduced.
• Two more Centralised Tax Processing centres to be set up in addition to the one at Bangalore.
• Implementation of Direct Tax Code and Goods & Service Tax Act (GST) from April 2011.
• No capital gains on small companies converting to LLPs.
• Excise duty raise from 8% to 10%.
• Service tax rate retained at 10%.
• More services under Service Tax net : Promoting a brand, copyright on films & sound recording, health checkup of employees etc.

OTHERS

• FDI policy to be made more user-friendly with one comprehensive document.
• Government committed to growth of SEZs.
• Apex level financial stability council to be set up for banking sector.
• Additional banking licences to NBFCs & private players.
• Rs.1,900 crore for Unique Identification Authority of India.
• Banking facilities to be provided to all places with a population of 2,000 and more.
• Four-pronged strategy for growth of agricultural sector.
• In view of drought and floods, debt repayment period extended to June 2010.
• Five more mega food processing projects in addition to 10 existing ones.
• New fertiliser policy from April 2010; will lead to improved productively and more income for farmers.
• Government set in motion steps to bring down food inflation.
• Need to review stimulus package; need to make growth more broad-based.
• Expenditure in 2010-11 estimated at 11,l8,749 crore.
• Fiscal deficit estimated at 5.5 percent in 2010-11; an improvement of 1 percent over 2009-10.
• National Social Security Fund created for workers in unorganised sector with allocation of Rs.1,000 crore.
• Government to give Rs.1,000 for each National Pension Scheme account opened by workers in the unorganised sector.
• Exclusive skill development programme for the textile sector.
• Fifty percent hike in allocation for schemes for women and child development.
• Rs.4,500 crore allocated for ministry of social justice and empowerment, a hike of 80 percent.
• Rs.2,600 crore allocated for ministry of minorities affairs.
• Rs.147,344 crore allocated for defence.
• Allocation on primary education raised from Rs.26,800 crore to Rs.31,300 crore.
• Rs.66,100 crore allocated for rural development in 2010-11; Rs.40,100 crore for National Rural Employment Scheme; RS.48,000 crore for Bharat Nirman.
• Forty-six percent of plan allocations in 2010-11 will be for infrastructure development.
• Allocation for new and renewable energy sector increased 61 percent from Rs.620 crore to Rs.1,000 crore in 2010-11.
• National Clean Energy Fund to be established.