India Budget 2005-2006 Highlights

1. Income up to Rs 1,00,000 per annum exempted from tax.
2. Income between Rs 1-1.5 lakh to be taxed at 10%.
3. Rs 1.5-2.5 lakh income to be taxed at 20%.
4. Income above Rs 2.5 lakh to be taxed at 30%.
5. Tax exemption level for women at Rs 1.25 lakh.
6. Tax exemption level for senior citizens at Rs 1.5 lakh.
7. Consolidated limit of Rs 1 lakh of saving to be deducted from income before calculating tax.
8. Standard deduction goes.
9. 01% tax on withdrawing over Rs 10,000 cash from banks on a single day.
10. One-by-six scheme for filing IT returns changes: Payment of electricity bill of over Rs 50,000 in; mobile phone ownersship out.
11. 50 paise per litre cess on fuel to fund highways.
12. Defence allocation to be hiked to Rs 83,000 crore next fiscal.
13. National food for work programme to converted into the national rural employment guarantee scheme with an allocation of Rs 11,000 crore.
14. National rural health mission to be launched.
15. Coverage of Antyodaya Anna Yojana to be extended.
16. Allocation under mid-day meal scheme will be increased to Rs 3,010 crore.
17. Total sanitation campaign to be extended to all districts.
18. Rajiv Gandhi National fellowship for SC/ST students.
19. Equity support for National Minorities Development and Finance Corporation to be increased.
20. Special package of Rs 450 crore for highway development in the North-east.
21. Bharat Nirman plan to be implemented over a period of four years for building infrastructure.
22. Equity support of Rs 14,040 crore and loans of Rs 3,554 for central public sector enterprises including railways in 2005-06.
23. Rs 630 crore to be provided to the National horticulture mission.
24. New scheme for development/strengthening of agricultural marketing infrastructure, grading and standardization to be introduced.
25. National project for repair, renovation and restoration of water bodies to be launched in March, 2005.
26. Rs 180 crore outlay for flood management and erosion control in Ganga, Brahmaputra, Barak.
27. Agricultural credit of Rs 108,500 crore to be disbursed in the current year and the credit flow to increase by another 30% in 2005-06.
28. Number of borrowers from public sector banks will increase by another 50 lakh.
29. National agricultural insurance scheme to continue for rabi and kharif 2005-06.
30. Micro finance development fund to be redesignated as the micro finance development and equity fund with an increased corpus of Rs 200 crore.
31. Provision of Rs 1,200 crore made for universal service obligation fund in 2005-06 for telecommunications.
32. BSNL to provide public telephones in next 3 years to the remaining 66,822 revenue villages.
33. National highway development project III to be launched.
34. Rs 1,400 crore to be provided for four-laning 4,000kms in 2005-06.
35. Rs 1,100 crore to be provided for rural electrification in 2005-06.
36. Creation of rural electricity distribution backbone envisaged.
37. About 15 lakh houses to be constructed during next year under Indira Awas Yojana.
38. SPV to finance infrastructure projects which are financially viable.
39. Outlay of Rs 5,500 crore made under the National Urban Renewal Mission to cover the 7 mega cities and some other towns.
40. Surcharge of Re 1 per kg on tea, duty of Re 1 per kg on refined edible oils and Re 1.25 per kg on vanaspati to be abolished.
41. Proposal to raise the ceiling for SSI exemption based on turnover from Rs 3 crore per year to Rs 4 crore per year.
42. Excise duty on iron industry reduced.
43. Duty on molasses to be increased from Rs 500 per mt to Rs 1,000 per mt.
44. Increase specific duty on cement clinkers from Rs 250 per mt to Rs 350 per mt.
45. Specific rate on cigarettes to be raised by about 10% and a surcharge of 10% to be imposed on ad valorem duties on other tobacco products including gutka, chewing tobacco, snuff and pan masala. Bidis exempt.
46. Proposals to reduce the customs duty on textile machinery.
47. Lower customs duty on specified machinery in leather and footwear industry.
48. Reducing duty on specific pharmaceuticals and biotechnology machinery.
49. Duties on specified parts of battery operated road vehicles and for printing presses.
50. Reduction of duties on primary and secondary matters from 15% to 10%.
51. Duty on lead to be reduced to 5%.
52. Duty on coking coal with high ash content reduced 5%.
53. Duty on polyester and nylon chips, textile fibres, yarns and intermediates, fabrics and garments to be cut.
54. Two anti tax-evasion measures to be introduced.
55. Banks to report on all deposits which are exempt from TDS on interest.