In the Budget 2009 of the Government of India Finance Minister talked of the increasing size of Indian budget with planned expenditure for 2009-10 expected to cross a record Rs 1 Million Crores; he also alluded to the fact that 1951 Budget was a mere Rs 193 Crores!
Some quick facts
IT folks can be happy; Tax Holiday extended, but just for one more year; hardware duty / excise rationalized; specific mention was made about set-top box and LDC TV; excise duty / service tax anomalies on software to go; Nandan Nilekani’s UID Authority gets Rs 120 Crores in the year 2009-10
Education & Research got a bounty; Rs 2,000 Crores increase for the department (compared to Interim Budget); IIT and NIT get Rs 2,400 Crores; R & D work gets 150% tax incentive; donation to educational institutes get tax benefit
Everyone has reason to smile; no increase in personal income tax; marginal increase in exemption (Rs 15,000 for everyone, some more for women); 10% surcharge goes
Industry folks too can be happy; no increase in corporate tax; Fringe Benefit Tax goes; the messy tax was costing a lot on implementation; people will save headache and money!
Infrastructure gets a big boost; NHAI (roads), JNNRUM (urban infrastructure) get big jump; in fact, the Budget speech first talked of infrastructure at length
Rural folks get lot of importance; NREGA (Rural Unemployment dole) goes to Rs 39,000 Crores; Rural Roads, Rural Health, Rural Insurance, Rural Housing & Rural Electricity get huge increase in budgetary support
Welfare ministries get more than due attention: SC/ST, women welfare, minorities affairs get big push
Armed forces finally get some attention; retired Jawans to get a fair pension
Finally, there is enough politics; donation to political parties get a tax benefit; States of Maharashtra and West Bengal (Finance Minister’s home State) get extra allocation
(I missed my Delhi flight; my driver had gone to Mysore; I decided to work from home; listened to the 120-minute long Budget Speech; made some notes; the blog entries are based on that; I have specifically not included many figures as I did not take notes except to Twitter 21 times!)
July 8, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Respected Prof.
Claims and allocation for poor and education had been made in past too. I feel this budget in no difference.
Following is reproduced from Internet article and from your personal blog.Hope UID project {Headed by a renowned and well respected technocrat} may make a difference {a recent technological initiative in our country}. UID may aid in smooth transfer of money and government policies to the needful. In past crores of rupees that start journey from books preserved in National Capital had failed to reach the destined hands.
I wish two years from now we the Indians plug those leaks. Help our current Prime Minister in achieving his dream of thinning the subsidy bill by restricting to the real needy and preventing it to reach the hands of greedy.
July 22, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Dear Sir,
Just a comment on NREGA – it is not about rural unemployment dole really. The program is about assuring a minimum of 100 days of work to unemployed unskilled and semi-skilled rural citizens. The dole kicks in only if the govt (in this case the gram panchayat) is not able to assign the work to the applicant within 15 days of receipt of the application!!
I think this is truly a great initiative by the govt. If we could support the govt with appropriate IT to monitor as well as prevent fraud and ensure the money reaches the beneficiaries, we would perhaps see tremendous growth driven bottom up. These 100 days of work put in by say 30% of the populace who are purportedly BPL would in turn create a huge asset base at the village level ie bottom of the pyramid, the result of an effort of the order of 3000 crore man-days EVERY YEAR!!!
July 26, 2009 at 8:23 am
Thanks for bringing out this point. I did not know it.
Any suggestions on the use of IT?