Union Budget 2009: Highlights

* Budgetary support increased for Ministries of Rural Development, Road Transport & Highway, Power, Railways, Industrial Policy & Promotion and IT.
* Will return to FRBM targets when economy is on track
* 15 point programme for welfare of minorities set up.
* Food, fertiliser and petroleum subsidies to go up
* Defence allocation hiked to Rs 141,703 cr
* Central planned expenditure hiked to Rs 2,82,957 cr
* Rs 8,300 cr allocated for mid-day meal scheme
* 2 per cent interest subvention for export credit.
* Rajiv Gandhi Rural Drinking Water Mission gets Rs 7,400 crore in 2009-10.
* Central plan increased for host of areas like telecom, rural development
* Flagship NREGA scheme gets Rs 30,100 crore in 2009-10
* Allocation for JNNURM programme raised to Rs 11,842 crore.
* Rs 13,100 cr earmarked for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
* Rs 4,900 cr allocation under Bharat Nirman
* Aim to increase job opportunities to 12 million/year
* Infrastructure investment to be raised to over 9 per cent of GDP.
* Budget estimate for expenditure 09-10 put at Rs 953,231 crore.
* NPAs for PSU banks falls to 7.3 per cent in 2008-09.
* 55 loss making PSUs against 73 when UPA took over.
* 2008-09 Tax [^] collection to exceed previous year
* Revised Tax [^] estimates at Rs 6.2 lakh crore against Rs 6.80 lakh crore.
* Rs 8,000 cr sanctioned for mid-day meal scheme during 2009-10.
* Total expenditures estimated at Rs 9.90 lakh crore versus Rs 7.50 lakh crore.
* FY09 revenue deficit 4.4% vs 1% estimate
* FY09 fiscal deficit @ 6% of GDP
* Tax [^] collections down by Rs 60,000 cr over budget estimates for 2008-09
* Budget presentation resumes
* House adjourned for 10 minutes
* JDS MP Virender Kumar unwell
* Revised budget estimates 2008-09 increased to Rs 909,053 cr from Rs 750,884 cr.
* Distortions in Tax [^] structure have been reduced
* Rs 632 cr provided for recapitalisation of RRBs
* Significant improvement in health of PSU banks
* State run PSEs profit up 72 per cent in 2008-09.
* NPAs for PSU banks falls to 7.3 per cent in 2008-09
* PSU turnover up 84%
* Dividend contribution from PSUs increased by 86%
* 3.6 crore households gained from waiver
* Adhoc grants increased by 50%
* Pension schemes for widows, severely disabled launched
* 6 new IIMs to be operational by 2010
* 60.4 lakh houses constructed under Indira Awas Yojana during the year
* 2 more IITs in M.P. and Rajasthan
* Student loans increased from Rs 4,500 cr on March 31, 2004 to Rs 24,260 cr as on September 30, 2008
* Educational loan scheme revised
* Outlay for higher education hiked by 900%
* Govt's highest priority to rural sector
* Committed to ensuring food security
* Steps to bring back 9% growth needed
* Farm, SVCs, manufacturing are growth drivers
* FRBM targets relaxed to boost consumer demand
* Credit disbursement up three fold.
* Rs 13,500 cr agricultural revival package implemented in 25 states
* FDI inflows $23.3 bn in Apr-Nov up 45%
* Govt to consider more fiscal measures.
* Medium term target is to return to fiscal consolidation
* Debt waiver of Rs 65,300 cr till now.
* Agriculture credit disbursement has gone up
* Agriculture credit has been increased by three fold to Rs 2,50,000 crore
* Plan allocation to agriculture up 300%
* Employment generation schemes have to be expanded
* Need to revert to fiscal consolidation soon
* Extension of export credit for labour-intensive projects
* 37 infrastructure projects worth Rs 70,000 cr cleared
* Govt okayed 27 infrastructure projects between August 2008 - January 2009.
* In-principle nod for 50 infrastructure projects worth Rs 67,700 cr
* India [^] Infrastructure Co to re-finance 60% of projects
* Inflation rate fell to 4.4% on Jan 31, 2009
* Revenue deficit cut from 3.6 per cent to 1.1 per cent
* Slow down in export growth to 17.1% for last 9 months
* Boost to public- private partnership projects through higher viability gap funding
* India [^] second-fastest growing Economy [^]@7.1% growth
* Agriculture annual growth rate 3.7%
* Farmers to get loans upto Rs 3 lakhs at 7%
* Investment as per cent of GDP rose to 29 per cent in 2007-08 from 27.6 per cent.
* Foreign trade at 35.5% of GDP
* Export growth at 26.4% annually in last 4 yrs
* Tax [^]-GDP ratio at 12.5 per cent in 2007-08.
* Industrial production has fallen by 2 per cent
* India [^] has weathered the Global [^] crisis
* Global [^] Economy [^] will fare worse in 2009 than in 2008
* Export growth down to 17.1 per cent.
* Grain production encouraging for coming year
* Per capita income grew 7.4%
* Real heroes of our Economy [^] are farmers
* Fiscal revenue down
* Average growth rate of agri @ 3.7%.
* Consistent 9% growth over three years
* Pranab begins Budget speech
* Pranab to present interim Budget at 11 am
* Pranab Mukherjee to present Union Budget