The Finance Minister P Chidambaram has tabled the General budget for 2007-08 in the Lok Sabha for the sixth time and the fourth time for the UPA government. The common people of India as well as Corporate India have their own expectations from the budget.

Now, the analysis of the budget would reveal the impact of the budget on the life of ‘aam aadmi‘ as well as corporate India too. During the speech, Chidambaram said that the government is committed to maintain moderate tax regime, which helps growth and rewards honest taxpayers.

Chidambaram had good tidings for women and senior citizens in this budget. He proposed a hike in exemption of indirect taxes for women to Rs 1,45,000, while the I-T exemption limit for senior citizens has been increased to Rs 1,95,000.

The Sensex tumbled down 678 points to below 13,000 levels in the morning when the minister started his speech. But it recovered more than 425 points at 13,224.73 shortly after the announcement of the Union Budget. However, it was still trading 250 points down from the previous close.

Here are some important points of the Union Budget 2007-08-

# Service tax on Residents Welfare Associations whose members contribute more than Rs 3,000

# Income tax limit not to be changed. Threshold limit raised by Rs 10,000 giving every assessee a relief of Rs 1,000

# Excise duty on Pan Masala without tobacco as mouth freshners reduced from 66 % to 45 %

# Both small and big water purification devices are fully exempted from excise

# Specific rates of excise duty on cigarettes increased

# Small-scale industries excise duty exemption raised from Rs 1 cr to Rs 1.5 cr

# Ad valorem duty on petrol and diesel to be brought down from 8% to 6%

# Income tax exemption increased: Upto Rs 110,000 for men, upto Rs 145,000 for women and upto Rs 195,000 for senior citizens

# Revenue deficit at Rs 72,478 crore which will be 1.5 %

# Fiscal deficit for 2007-08 pegged at 3.3% of GDP at Rs 1,50,948 cr

# Peak customs duty rate on non-agricultural items reduced from 12.5 to 10 %

# Increase in gross tax revenue by 19.9 %, 20 per cent and 27.8 % in first three years of UPA Government

# The share of states from the revenue expected to touch Rs 1,42,450 cr during 2007-08 as against Rs.1,20,377 cr during 2006-07

# A national level goods and services tax to be introduced from next fiscal

# Rs 100 cr for recognising excellence in the field of agricultural research

# Rs 50 crore to be provided for the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune

# Rs 150 cr to be given to Ministry of Youth and Sports for Commonwealth Games and Rs 350 cr to the Delhi Government for the purpose

# An Expert Committee to be set up to study the impact of climate change in India

# Government will reimburse the EPF contributions of employers in the case of physically challenged people taken on rolls of the company and included in the PF scheme

# Customs and excise duty have been reduced, Dividend distribution tax hiked raised from 12.5% to 15%

# Benefits of investment in venture capital funds for helping IT, bio-technology, nano-technology, seed research, dairy etc

# Expenditure on samples and free distribution items to be exempted from fringe benefit tax

# Additional revenue from direct taxes to yield Rs.3000 cr

# Tax free bonds to be issued by state-owned urban local bodies

# Education cess on service tax now at 3%

# Five year tax holiday for two, three, four star hotels and convention centres with a seating capacity of 3,000 in NCT of Delhi, Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, Faridabad and Gautam Buddha Nagar for Commonwealth Games

# Excise duty on cement reduced from Rs 400 per tonne to Rs 350 per tonne

# Two lakh people to benefit out of service tax exemption.

# Government to create one lakh jobs for physically challenged

# 1,396 Indian Technical Institutes to be upgraded to achieve technical excellence

# Mutual funds to set up Infrastructure Fund schemes

# Indian investors to be allowed investment in overseas capital markets through mutual funds

# 1% cut in Central Sales Tax

# Regional Rural Banks to undertake aggressive branch expansion program, one RRB branch for each of 80 districts so far uncovered

# Insurance companies to launch a senior citizens scheme in 2007-08

# 31% increase in Bharat Nirman to boost infrastructure companies

# Agricultural investment to go up by 2% of the GDP

# Rural landless families to get death/disability insurance cover

# Tourism infrastructure to get an allocation of Rs 520 cr as against Rs 423 cr last year

# Rs 96,000 cr allocated for Defence. This includes capital expenditure of Rs 41,922 cr. Any requirement for security of the nation to be provided

# PAN will be sole ID number for all market participants

# Work on Golden Quadrilateral road project nearly complete

# Northeastern region will get Rs 405 crore for highway development Road-cum-rail project over Brahmaputra in Bogibil, Assam

# Allocation for National Highway Development programme to be stepped up from Rs 9,955 cr to Rs 12,600 cr

# FDI inflows between April and January this fiscal touched $12.5 billion while portfolio investment reached $6.8 billion

# Special housing project from National Hosuing Board for senior citizens

# 70 lakh households to be covered under a social welfare scheme with LIC and with support from state governments

# National Agricultural Insurance Scheme to be continued for Kharif and Rabi this year

# Death and disability cover for rural landless families to be introduced, known as ‘Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana’

# Public-private model for infrastructure successful, but needs to be more agrressive

# 100% subsidy for small farmers and 50% for other farmers for water recharging scheme

# Gender budgeting cells in 50 ministries

# New Industrial Policy for the northeastern region to be in place before March 31

# A target of additional 50 lakh farmers to be brought under farm credit

# Education allocation hiked by 34 %

# Allocation for AIDS control programme to be raised to Rs 969 cr

# Agricultural focus to benefit rural income and FMCG companies

# Allocation under Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Mission stepped up from Rs 4,680 cr to Rs 5,850 cr

# Mid day meals for upper primary with an allocation of Rs 7,324 cr in backward blocks

# One lakh scholarships to be awarded every year

# Per Capita Income in 2006 increased by 74 per cent

# 8% growth rate for Tenth Plan nearly achieveable

# Bank credit rate grew by 29 per cent during first ten months of 2006-07

# About 15,054 villages have been covered under rural telephony, target is to cover 20,000 villages

Source