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.