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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Budget 2012 - India

Pranab Mukherjee, the Finance Minister of India, presented the budget 2012 on March 16th, 2012. The main highlights of the budget for the common man are as follows:

  • Implementation of DTC deferred.
  • Income Tax Sops on the equity investments under Rajiv Gandhi Equity savings scheme on 50K for the individuals having income below Rs 10 lakh.
  • Income Tax exemption limit hiked to Rs 2 lakh from the existing Rs 1.8 lakh.  
  • Income from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 5 lakh to be taxed at 10 per cent, from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh at 20%.
  • Income above Rs 10 lakh to taxed at 30%. 
  • Health insurance deduction up to Rs 5,000 for preventive health checkup within the existing limit of Rs. 15,000/-. 
  • Senior citizens to be exempt from advance tax payments.
  • STT (Security Transaction Tax) cut from 0.125% to 0.1%.
  • Interest income from banks will be tax-free up to Rs 10,000.
  • Service tax net widened; to include most sectors but Govt services, education, entertainment, public transport exempted from service tax.
  • Propose to hike service tax rate from 10% to 12%.
  • Sale of residential property exempted from capital gains if invested in equity or equipment of an SME. 
  • Large cars duty raised from 22% to 24%.
  • Solar power lamps, LED bulbs to become cheaper.
  • Iodised salt, match-boxes, soya products to become cheaper.
  • Big cars, ACs, refrigerators, phone bills, restaurant bills set to become more expensive.
  • LCD, LED TVs to become cheaper.
  • Cigarettes, gold, diamonds to cost more.