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Taxes
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No income tax for people earning upto Rs 1 lakh per annum. Special
exemptions also given to certain categories of disabled people
on pensions given to familes of soldiers killed in action. Income
Tax slabs untouched. |
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Two per cent cess of all central taxes - Income Tax, Corporate
Tax and Excise. This will be used to fund the UPA's tremendous
investment in education. This will have have a price impact
on several products. |
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Interest rates untouched - Providend Fund rates to stay stable
at eight per cent. Senior Citizens can avail of special schemes
at nine per cent interest. |
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Excise duties on steel go up from eight per cent to twelve per
cent. What this means is that consumers might pay more for all
products that use steel in them like automobiles and consumer
durables. This comes on the back of the highest levels of international
steel prices in history. Excise duties however have gone down
on many other products - Computer Manufacturers can celebrate
as excise duties have been removed - but this will only make
branded PCs more competitive vis-a-vis assembled PCs. Tractors
and Mobiles will also be cheaper. And if you use Contact Lenses
expect to pay a more. |
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Peak Rates for Customs Duty to stay at 20 per cent |
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Turnover Tax of 0.15 per cent - the tax was expected but the
amount was not. The markets did not take kindly to this announcement
and the markets have reacted badly. |
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Long-Term Capital Gains Tax abolished, but Short Term Capital
Gains Tax reduced to ten per cent. |
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Changes made to the structure of Gift Tax, gifts from non-relatives
above Rs 25,000 will attract tax. But not on special occasions
like marriages and birthdays. |
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Service Tax increased from eight per cent to ten per cent and
several new services brought under its gambit - including (unsurprisingly!)
Opinion Poll services with 14 others. |
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Value Added Tax expected to become operational by April 1, 2005.
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| INDUSTRY / INFRASTRUCTURE |
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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in certain sectors ramped up.
Foreign companies can now invest upto 74 percent of the equity
in telecom companies and upto 49 per cent in insurance and civil
aviation companies. |
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Auto Companies are given a 150 per cent tax exemption for Research
and Development activities. |
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New agro-tech industries are given a five year tax holiday |
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Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) stripped of most of
its powers, new Investment Commission established to promote
investment in India Inc. |
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Textile Industry given tax incentives, no tax on handloom and
powerloom operators. |
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Rs 40,000 crore will be made available to a bank consortitium
to aid infrastructure development with focus on airports, seaports
and tourism. |
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First large-scale desalination plant to be set up in Chennai
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| AGRICULTURE / RURAL ECONOMY |
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Schemes announced to improve rural water systems. Pilot project
to cover five districts this year, to be expanded in the next
fiscal. Panchayats will be given the authority to manage their
own water harvesting schemes. |
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Schemes will be implemented to give insurance to all farmers
for both crops and livestock |
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Self-Help Group projects to be expanded to help creation of
micro-industries |
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2,50,000 homes to be made for the rural poor. |
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More families to come under the Public Distribution Scheme for
subsidised heat and rice. Mid-day meal scheme to be enhanced
in rural schools. Food subsidy to total more that Rs 25,000
crore. |
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Farmers to be encouraged to diversify into Horticulture and
Floriculture |
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Bihar to be provided with a special package of Rs 3,225 crore.
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| Defence |
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Defence Allocation increased from Rs 65,300 crore to Rs 77,000
crore. |
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Computers 
Cars 
DVD Players 
Income
Tax 
Housing
Loan
Phone
Bills 
Petrol
Hotel
Stay 
Sunil
B. Mittal
Lalu
P Yadav 
Naresh
Trehan
Stuart
Purdy
J.
Godrej
