Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday began the presentation of Union Budget 2010-2011 with a renewed sense of optimism over the country’s growth and clear signals from policymakers to bring deficits back to manageable levels.
Expectations are high from the 74-year-old veteran politician, who has tabled four budgets in the past, to address the twin [...]

The Union budget for 2010-11 is likely to be presented on February 26, two days ahead of the usual date.
The new date has been mooted after it dawned on the government that February 28 — itself a Sunday — is sandwiched between Prophet Mohammad’s birthday (February 27), a government holiday, and Holi (March 1).
The [...]

* Plan and Non-plan Expenditure
* Revenue and fiscal deficit
* Developments in agriculture
o Farm credit
o Irrigation
* Transport
* Railways
* Subsidies
* Banking system, Insurance, Agricultural Insurance, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Regional Rural Banks, Housing loans, Exclusive health insurance, Capital market
* Urban and Rural Infrastructure Development
* Industry
* SMEs
* Gross domestic capital, Foreign direct investment and [...]

* To remove Fringe Benefit Tax
* Surcharge of 10% on personal income tax removed
* No change in Corporate taxes
* Propose to phase out surcharge on Direct Taxes
* States agree on basic structure of Goods and Services Tax
* Commodity Transaction Tax scrapped
* To create Alternate Tax disputes resolution mechanism for foreign companies
* Software Technology Parks [...]

* Scope of presumptive taxation to be extended to all small businesses with a turnover upto Rs. 40 lakh. All such taxpayers to have option to declare their income from business at the rate of 8 percent of their turnover and simultaneously enjoy exemption from the compliance burden of maintaining books of accounts. As [...]

For Male Tax Payers
Upto Rs. 1,60,000 – NIL
From Rs. 1,60,001 to Rs. 3,00,000 – 10%
From Rs. 3,00,001 to Rs. 5,00,000 – 20%
Above Rs 5,00,001 – 30%
For Female Tax Payers
Upto Rs. 1,90,000 – NIL
From Rs. 1,90,001 to Rs. 3,00,000 – 10%
From Rs. 3,00,001 to Rs. 5,00,000 – 20%
Above Rs 5,00,001 – 30%
For Senior citizens Tax [...]

Highlights of Budget 2009
* Growth rate in 2008-09 dipped to 6.7 per cent from average 9 per cent growth in previous three fiscal years.
* Mukherjee intends to make pre-budget consultations with state finance ministers an annual affair
* Fiscal deficit grew from 2.7 per cent to 6.8 per cent of GDP
* We need institutional reforms [...]

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday raised tax slabs in his Union Budget 2009-2010
He proposed to increase the income tax exemption limit for senior citizens by Rs 15,000, for women and others by Rs10,000 each, while keeping the corporate tax rate unchanged.
The exemption limit will now be Rs 240,000 for senior citizens, Rs190,000 for [...]