Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented the Interim Budget for 2014-15 on Monday, 17th Feb, 2014. Here are the some highlights of that budget.
1) Excise duty on Small Cars, Motorcycles, SUVs and lager and mid size cars is reduced –
The above concessions aimed at the middle class and to boost the automobile sector that has been registering a negative growth, include a slashing of excise duty cut from 12% to 8% on small cars, motor cycles, scooters and commercial vehicles and cut from 30% to 24% on SUVs and cut from 27-24% to 24-20% on large and mid-segment car. Appropriate reductions will be made in the excise duty on chassis and trailers.
2) Restructuring of Excise duty on domestically manufactured mobile phones and Capital Goods –
Excise duty cut from 12% to 10% on capital goods and consumer non durable goods (All above goods are falling under Chapter 84 and Chapter 85 of the schedule to the Central Excise Tariff Act) to stimulate growth. In trying to boost manufacturing, excise duty on all categories of mobile handsets is restructure. The rate will be 6% with CENVAT credit and 1% without CENVAT credit.
3) Service tax exemption for storage and warehousing of rice and also for Blood Banks –
Finance Minister provided Service tax exemption for loading, unloading, packing, storage and warehousing of rice. Similarly, cord blood banks and health care services have been exempted from service tax.
4) No changes in direct tax laws in Interim Budget –
There is no change in Direct Tax laws regarding slab rates and retains the 10% surcharge on ‘super-rich’ individual/HUF/AOP/BOI having income above Rs.1 crore in a year.
5) Announcement of moratorium period for education loans taken before 31st March 2009 to benefit 9 lakh students.
Te finance minister propose the moratorium period for all education loans taken up to 31.3.2009 and outstanding on 31.12.2013. It means that government will take over the liability for outstanding interest up to December 31, 2013, but the borrower would have to pay interest for the period after January 1st, 2014, nearly 9 lakh student would get benefit to tune of around Rs.2600 crore.
6) Estimation of Rs.500 crore for one –rank, one-pay Scheme for Armed Forces –
The scheme will ensure that soldiers of the same rank and same length of service receive the same pension, irrespective of retirement benefit.For this purpose the government transfer Rs.500 crore to defence pension account.The decision will be expected to benefit around 3 million defense pensioners, will come into effect from 2014-2015 fiscal.
7) Budgetary support to Railways increased from Rs.26000 crore to Rs.29000 crore –
There is announcement of an increase of allocation for railways from 26000 crore to 29000 crore in 2014-15. It is proposed to identify new instruments and new mechanism to raise funds for railway projects.
8) Allocation of additional Rs.1000 crore for Nirbhaya Fund –
The government allocated additional Rs.1000 crore to the Nirbhaya Fund for women’s safety, which increases the total funds available for such projects to Rs.2000 crore.Two projects i.e. GPS tracking of vehicles and SOS button on mobiles phones for emergency response in distress had been cleared under this scheme.
9) Other Highlights at Glance –
a) The allocation of Rs.2, 46,397 crore for food, fertilizer and fuel subsidy.
b) 500 MW fast breeder test reactor in Kalpakkam to be ready shortly, 7 nuclear power reactors under construction.
d) 3 more industrial corridors – Chennai-Bangalore, Bangalore-Mumbai, Amritsar-Kolkata under various stages of implementation.
e) Merchandise export to grow by 6.3% to USD 326 billion.
f) GDP growth rate in Q3 and Q4 of 2013-14 will be at least 5.2%.
Finance Bill 2014 is attached here for your reference.
