Highlights of Union Budget 2012-13

New Delhi, Mar 16: Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the General Budget 2012 amidst uproar in the Lok Sabha. The highlights of the Union Budget are given below -

• Headline inflation to moderate further in next few months and remain stable thereafter. [Read: Budget: Tax benefits, costlier services]
  
• GDP to grow by 6.9 per cent in 2011-12, says FM. [Read: Union Budget 2012-13: Who said what ]
  
• GDP to grow by 7.6 per cent in 2012-13; plus, minus 0.25 per cent.
• Full exemption from basic customs duty for road and highway construction.[Read: List of prices gone up & down after Budget 2012]
  
• Gold jewellery not bearing brand name to be included in the one per cent levy on precious metal jewellery. [Read: Sops and imposts in Budget 2012-13]
  
• Customs duty on import of parts of aircraft, tyres and testing equipment fully exempted.[Read: UPA, Cong ditch India with Budget 2012 to win election 2014]
  
• Full exemption from basic customs duty on natural gas, LNG, uranium for generation of electricity for two years.
• Oil cess on domestic crude raised to Rs 4,500 per ton from Rs 2,500 per ton.
• Excise duty on all processed food brought down to merit rate of 6 per cent.
• Customs and central excise proposals to net a revenue of Rs 27,280 crore.
• Baggage allowance for people of Indian origin increased from Rs 25,000 to Rs 35,000 and for children from Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000.
• Customs duty on standard gold bar and coins exceeding 99.5 per cent purity, platinum and non-standard gold raised.
• Branded silver jewellery fully exempted from excise duty.
• Installation of solar plants exempted from CVD.
• Customs duty on bicycles and parts increased.
• Import duty on large cars, MUVs, SUVs enhanced.
• Introduction of compulsory reporting of assets held abroad. [Read: Defence Budget hiked by more than 17 pc]
• Standard excise duty rate raised from 10 per cent to 12 per cent.
• Interest income of up to 10 per cent to be exempted from tax.
• Copyright relating to cinematography in film industry exempted from service tax.
• Service tax to yield additional revenue of Rs 18,650 crore.
• Securities Transaction Tax (STT) reduced from 0.125 per cent to 0.1 per cent.
• Cars to attract ad valorem rate of 27 per cent.
• Tax exemption of up to Rs 5,000 for health insurance for annual preventive health checkup.
• Capital gains tax on residential property exempted if sale proceeds used for SMEs.
• No change in the peak rate customs duty.
• No IT for income up to Rs 2,00,000; 10 pc on income between Rs 2-5 lakh; 20 pc on income between Rs 5-10 lakh and 30 pc on income above Rs 10 lakh.
• No change in corporate tax rate.
• Import of equipment for fertilizer plants fully exempt from customs duty for three years.
• Direct taxes proposals to result in net revenue loss of Rs 4,500 crore.
• Fiscal deficit at 5.9 per cent of GDP in revised estimates for 2011-12.
• White Paper on black money to be tabled in current session of Parliament.
• Direct tax collection fell short by Rs 32,000 crore in current fiscal.
• Determined to bring down fiscal deficit to 5.1 per cent of GDP next fiscal.
• Non-plan expenditure Rs 9,69,900 crore in 2012-13; 8.7 per cent higher than current year.
• Total debt of the Centre will be 45 per cent of GDP.
• 40 crore Aadhar enrollment in year beginning April 2012.

PTI