Union Budget 2014: Highlights of P Chidambaram's Vote-on-Account

New Delhi, Feb 17: Union Finance Minister

on Monday, Feb 17 presented his interim Union Budget 2014. While the

succeeded to impress a few people, most of the people were disappointed with Chidambaram's

. Here are the highlights and key takeaways from the budget.

Key Takeaways:

• No change in tax laws, but changes in indirect tax
• Excise duty on small cars reduced to 8 per cent
• Excise duty on SUVs reduced to 28 per cent. Excise duty for large and mid-segment cars cut to 20 per cent
• Excise cut on capital goods cut from 12 to 10 per cent
• Rs 2,600 crore for education loan moratorium, to benefit 9 lakh borrowers for loans taken before March 31, 2009
• Fiscal deficit for FY14 to be contained at 4.6 per cent of GDP; FY15 target at 4.1 per cent
• FY14 Current Account Deficit seen at $45 bn
• FY14 Q3 & Q4 GDP growth to be at least 5.2 per cent

Other highlights of Union Budget 2014:

• RBI must strike a balance between growth and moderating inflation, Chidambaram says
• We must focus on manufacturing, specially manufacturing for exports: Chidambaram
• Blood banks to be exempt from service tax
• Rs 500 crore estimated requirement for implementing one-rank-one-pay scheme for armed forces in 2014-15
• Rs 6000 crore to rural housing fund, Rs 2000 crore for urban housing fund
• Minority bank accounts have swelled to 43,53,000 by 2013-14 from 14,15,000 bank accounts 10 years ago
• Rs 3711 crore for minority affairs; housing and urban poverty alleviation gets Rs 6000 crore
• Social justice ministry gets Rs 6730 crore; panchayati raj ministry Rs 7000 crore
• Moratorium on interest on student loans taken before March 31, 2009; to benefit 9 lakh borrowers
• Public Debt Management Bill ready
• Fiscal deficit target of 3% to be achieved by 2017
• Fiscal deficit to be contained at 4.6% of GDP in 2013-14.
• CAD will be $45 billion in 2013-14
• Foreign exchange reserves up by $15 billion
• Foodgrain production estimated at 263 million tons in 2013-14
• Agriculture credit will cross $45 billion against $41 billion in 2012-13
• 296 projects worth Rs 6,60,000 crore cleared by Cabinet Committee on Investment by end January 2014
• Merchandise export to grow by 6.8% to $326 billion
• 3 more industrial corridors - Chennai-Bangalore, Bangalore-Mumbai, Amritsar-Kolkata - under various stages of implementation
• GDP growth rate in Q3 and Q4 of 2013-14 will be at least 5.2 per cent
• Declining fiscal deficit, moderation of CAD, stable exchange rate and increase in project implementation result of hardwork
• Power capacity rises to 234,600 MW in 10 years
• Expenditure on education has risen from Rs 10,145 crore 10 years ago to Rs 79,251 crore this year
• Sugar decontrol, gradual correction of diesel prices, application for new bank licenses, sick electricity distribution companies restructured
• Average growth under UPA's ten year rule was 6.2 per cent against 5.9 during NDA period of 1999-2004
• Average growth under UPA-I was 8.4 per cent and UPA-II 6.6 per cent
• PSUs to achieve record capex of Rs 2,57,645 crore in 2013-14
• 500 MW fast breeder nuclear reaction in Kalpakkam to be ready shortly; 7 nuclear power reactors under construction
• National Solar Mission to undertake 4 ultra mega solar power projects in 2014-15
• Rs 1,200 crore additional assistance to N-E states to be released before end of the year
• Rs 1,000 crore grant for Nirbhaya Fund will be non-lapsable; another Rs 1,000 crore to be given next fiscal
• Rs 3,370 crore to transferred to 2.1 crore LPG users
• Govt committed to Aadhaar-based LPG transfer but scheme on hold temporarily
• Aadhaar is tool for empowerment
• Non-plan expenditure to exceed by a small amount in 2013-14
• 500 MW fast breeder test reactor in Kalpakkam to be ready shortly; 7 nuclear power reactors under construction
• Plan expenditure will be Rs 5,55,322 crore in 2014-15, unchanged from last fiscal
• Budgetary support to railways increased from Rs 26,000 crore to Rs 29,000 crore 2014-15
• Rs 2,46,397 crore allocated for food, fertilizer and fuel subsidy
• Food subsidy will be Rs 1,15,000 crore for implementation of National Food Security Act
• Defence allocation increased by 10 per cent to Rs 2.24 lakh crore

OneIndia News
(With agency inputs)