What was there in the Budget 2009-10 ?

During the year 2008-09, there has been a dip in the growth rate of GDP from an average of over 9 per cent in the previous three fiscal years to 6.7 per cent. It has affected the pace of job creation in certain sectors of the economy and the investment sentiments of the business community. It has also resulted in considerably lower revenue growth for the government. Another feature of the year 2008-09 was a sharp rise in the wholesale price index to nearly 13% in August 2008 and an equally sharp fall close to 0% in March 2009. The economic recovery and growth is a cooperative effort of the Central and State Governments. That is why, for the first time, I held a meeting with Finance Ministers of States as part of the preparations for this Budget. I intend to make this an annual feature. Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), This scheme is intended to make the country slum free in the five year period With the recent find of natural gas in the KG Basin on the Eastern offshore of the country, the indigenous production of Natural Gas is set to double with natural gas emerging as an important source of energy Government proposes to develop a blueprint for long distance gas highways leading to a National Gas Grid.

Restoring Export Growth An adjustment assistance scheme to provide enhanced Export Credit and Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) cover at 95 per cent to badly hit sectors The Market Development Assistance Scheme provides support to exporters in developing new markets. To ensure balanced application of fertilizers, the Government intends to move towards a nutrient based subsidy regime instead of the current product pricing regime. It will lead to availability of innovative fertilizer products in the market at reasonable prices. In due course it is also intended to move to a system of direct transfer of subsidy to the farmers. The average public float in Indian listed companies is less than 15 per cent. Deep non-manipulable markets require larger and diversified public shareholdings. This requirement should be uniformly applied to the private sector as well as listed public sector companies. I propose to raise, in a phased manner, the threshold for non-promoter public shareholding for all listed companies

National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) provided employment opportunities for more than 4.47 crore households convergence with other schemes relating to agriculture, forests, water resources, land resources and rural roads is being initiated work on National Food Security Act has begun in right earnest. This will ensure that every family living below the poverty line in rural or urban areas will be entitled by law to 25 kilos of rice or wheat per month at Rs.3 a kilo. The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) is one of the most successful programmes under Bharat Nirman The Swarna Jayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna (SGSY) is being restructured as the National Rural Livelihood Mission to make it universal in application, focused in approach and time bound for poverty eradication by 2014-15. Stress will be laid on the formation of women Self Help Groups (SHGs). Our objective is to enrol at least 50% of all rural women in India as members of SHGs over the next five years and link these SHGs to banks National Mission for Female Literacy, with focus on minorities, SC, ST and other marginalised groups. The aim will be to reduce by half, the current level of female illiteracy, in three years

The Unorganised Workers Social Security Bill, 2007 has now been passed by both Houses of Parliament. Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBYMore than 46 lakh BPL families in eighteen States and UTs have been issued biometric smart cards. This scheme empowers poor families by giving them freedom of choice for using health care services from an extensive list of hospitals including private hospitals Income Tax Act is riddled with a plethora of tax exemptions which substantially erode the tax base. The extent of this erosion is presented to this House in the form of a Revenue Foregone Statement. The growth in the direct tax revenue foregone is relatively higher than the growth in the direct tax revenues mat 15% of book profit, abolish FBT, CTT .

by

Bhushan Deshmukh, Faculty (TrademarkIAS)