Union Budget 2013-14 – Key Highlights

Following are some of the key highlights of the Union Budget 2013-14 presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament on Thursday (February 28):

 - No change in income tax slabs

 - Relief of Rs 2,000 for tax payers in tax bracket of Rs 2-5 lakh

 - 10 % surcharge on persons with taxable income of over Rs 1 crore

- Tobacco products, SUVs and mobile phones over Rs. 2,000 to cost more

- Income limit under Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme raised to 12 lakh from Rs 10 lakh

 -First home loan of up to Rs 25 lakh to get extra interest deduction of up to Rs 1 lakh

 - Duty free limit of gold import increased to Rs 50,000 for male passengers and Rs 1     lakh for female passengers

 - India's first women's bank to be set up by October

-  Concessional six per cent interest on loans to weavers

- Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana benefit extended to rickshaw pullers, auto and taxi drivers, among others

 - 'Nirbhaya Fund' of Rs 1,000 crore to empower women and provide safety in the wake of Delhi gang-rape incident

 - Fiscal deficit for 2013-14 pegged at 4.8 pc of GDP and 5.2 per cent in 2012-13

- Plan expenditure pegged at Rs 5,55,322 crore and non-Plan at Rs 11,09,975 crore

-New taxes to collect Rs 18,000 crore for government

- Voluntary Compliance Encouragement Scheme launched for recovering service tax dues

 -Rs 14,000 crore earmarked for capital infusion in public sector banks in 2013-14

 -Refinance capacity of SIDBI raised to Rs 10,000 crore

 -TUF Scheme for textile sector to continue in 12th Plan with an investment of Rs 1.51 lakh crore

- Rs 9,000 crore earmarked as first instalment of balance of CST compensation to states

- Defence allocation at Rs 203,672 crore, education Rs 65,867 crore and Rural Development Ministry

   Rs 80,194 cr

- Rs 10,000 crore earmarked for National Food Security towards incremental cost

- Farm credit target set at Rs 7 lakh crore as against Rs 5.75 lakh crore in 2012-13

- Direct Benefit Transfer scheme to be rolled out in the entire country during tenure of UPA    government

 -Commodity transaction tax of 0.01 per cent proposed on non-agriculture futures traded on commodity bourses

- Securities Transaction Tax brought down to 0.01 per cent

 -No change in basic customs duty; normal excise and service tax rates unchanged at 12 per cent

- Handmade carpets and textile floor coverings of coir or jute exempted from excise duty

- Excise duty on SUVs increased to 30 per cent from 27 per cent

- Chidambaram says India to become USD 5 trillion economy, and among top five in the world by 2025

-High current account deficit (CAD) a worry

- Food inflation a worry, govt to take all possible steps to augment supply side bottlenecks

- Govt proposes India's first Women's Bank as a public sector bank with Rs 1,000 crore initial capital;

  banking licence likely by October and bank expected to be operated by Nov’13.

- Foreign Trade Policy next month

- Two new major ports to come in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh to add 100 million tonnes of

   capacity

- Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDM) to get Rs 13,215 crore

 -Post offices to come on core banking solution and offer real time banking services; Rs 532 cr

   allocated for 2013-14

- Modified GAAR to be incorporated in Income-tax Act; the provisions to come into effect from April 2016

- Govt proposes to expand scope of annual information returns, extend e- payment facility through more banks, extend the refund banker system to refunds of more than Rs 50,000

- E-filing mandatory for more categories of assessees

- Direct Taxes Code (DTC) in the ongoing Budget session

 

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SBI Life Insurance launches new ULIP product Saral Maha Anand

 

SBI Life Insurance has launched a new unit-linked insurance plan (ULIP) called Saral Maha Anand.

This is the third ULIP product launched by the insurer since the introduction of the new ULIP norms by the insurance sector regulator, IRDA, last September.

The two products launched by SBI Life are

1. Smart Performer and
2. Unit Plus Super.

Saral Maha Anand , its new ULIP product:

• Is available at an affordable yearly premium starting from Rs 15,000 onwards and
• The product has been designed to cater to investment and protection needs of the middle-and-low-income segments.
• The product is exempted from medical-examination.

To quote SBI Life Insurance’s managing director & CEO, MN Rao,

 

“the product offers simplicity and affordability so that a larger section of society can participate and benefit by systematically investing over a long-term horizon.”

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Budget 2013: Women's bank to open by October 2013.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram in his budget speech announced the setting up of India's first public sector women's bank with an initial capital of Rs 1,000 crore

Licenses approval for “ Women’s Bank” is expected to be by October’13.

As part of his Union Budget, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said during his budget speech that India will set up a special Public Sector Unit bank solely for women, and to support businesses run by women.

The announcement of “Women’s Bank” has again been made by government to empower women and has led to mixed and divided opinions in the corporate world. It is expected that this will lead to inclusion at different levels, empower women from lower to middle income groups and give women a higher status in society. "It will encourage women to apply for loans, and start entrepreneurial activities. The move will particularly encourage women at the grass-roots levels to recognise their aspirations and will help women gain status in society,"

Budget 2013 - Nirbhaya Fund

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Budget 2013 - Nirbhaya fund for safety of women

The Central government has announced “Nirbhaya Fund” for women’s safety in memory of the Delhi gang-rape victim in the Budget 2013

The fund with Rs 1,000 crore corpus will support initiatives by the government and NGOs working towards protecting the dignity and ensuring safety of women.

Nirbhaya is one of the names by which the media referred to the Delhi gang-rape victim.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram while announcing the budgetary provisions said: “We have a collective responsibility to ensure the dignity and safety of women.

Recent incidents have cast a long, dark shadow on our liberal and progressive credentials. As more women enter public spaces, for education or work or access to services or leisure, there are more reports of violence against them. We stand in solidarity with our girl children and women. And we pledge to do everything possible to empower them and to keep them safe and secure.”

The Ministry of Women and Child Development, along with several other concerned ministries, will work out details of the structure, scope and the application of the fund.

"Nirbhaya Fund" is created with the objective of empowering women but there are still some question left which needs to be answer such:

1. How this fund will operate?

2. How women will be benefited with help of this fund?

3. Scope of this fund?

Note: We shall bring our reader with details once government come out with detail plan with operation of fund.

Budget 2013 - Women's Bank to be set up by October'13

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Due date of Service Tax return for April- June’2012 extended to 25-11-2012

Due date of filing of Service Tax returns for the period 01-04-2012 to 30-06-12 has been extended from 25-10-2012 to 25-11-2012

Rule 7 of the Service Tax Rule,1994 – Returns – Extension of Time Limit to file return in form ST3

ORDER No 3/2012 (F.NO.137/99/2011-ST), dated 15.10.2012

In exercise of the power conferred by sub-rule (4) of rule 7 of the service tax rule, 1994, the CEBC hereby extends the date of submission of the return of the period 1^st April 2012 to 30^th June 2012, from 25^th October,2012 to 25^th November’12.

The circumstances of a special nature which have given rise to this extension of time are as follows:

(a)           ACES will start releasing the return in Form ST3 in a quarterly format, shortly before the due date of 25^th October, 2012.

(b)           This will result in all assesses attempting to file return in short time period, which may result in problems in the computer network and delay and inconvenience to the assesses.

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