BUDGET 2008-09 HIGHLIGHTS

• Scheme of Debt Waiver and Debt Relief for farmers:
  • Rs.60,000 crore agricultural debt relief package
  • Complete waiver of all loans for marginal farmers and small farmers (upto 5 acres)
  • One time settlement(OTS) scheme in respect of other farmers for all loans. Under the OTS, a rebate of 25 percent will be given against payment of the balance of 75 percent.
  • Implementation of the debt waiver and debt relief scheme to be completed by June 30,2008.
  • About 3 crore small and marginal farmers and about one crore other farmers to benefit from the scheme; Total value of overdue loans being waived estimated at Rs.50,000 crore and the OTS relief estimated at Rs.10,000 crore.
• Rs.2,80,000 crore target set for farm credit in 2008-09; short term crop loan to continue at 7 percent interest.
• Irrigation and water resources finance corporation to be set up:rainfed area development programme to be started.
• Rs.3,966 crore for schemes for SC's and ST's; Rs.18,983 crore for schemes earmarking 20 percent funds for SC's and ST's.
• Minorities: Allocation to the Ministry of Minority Affairs increased from Rs.500 crore in 2007-08 to Rs.1000 crore in 2008-09; Report of the Justice Rajindar Sachar Committee taken up for speedy implementation.
• A multi-sectoral development plan for each of the 90 minority concentration districts will be drawn up at a cost of Rs.3,780 crore. The allocation in 2008-09 will be Rs.540 crore;
• A scheme for modernising Madrasa education for which a provision of Rs.45.45 crore has been made in 2008-09;
• Rs.60 crore to enhance the corpus fund of the Maulana Azad Education Foundation.
• All women self help groups credit-linked to banks to be covered under Janashree Bima Yojana.
• National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to cover all 596 rural districts.
• A national programme to be launched for the elderly people.
• A statement on child related schemes introduced in the budget for the first time.
• Mid-day meal scheme to be extended to upper primary classes in all blocks.
• Special mechanism for North-Eastern border areas.
• Government to establish 16 central universities.
• 3 I.I.T's, 2 I.I.S.E.R's and 2 schools of Planning and Architecture to be established.
• 6,000 high quality model schools to be opened.
• New scholarship scheme for promoting innovations in science.
• Each district to have a Nehru Yuva Kendra.
• Schools in water deficient habitations to have drinking water systems.
• Subsidy on houses under Indira Awas Yojana increased from Rs.25,000 to Rs.35,000 in plain areas and from Rs.27,500 to Rs.38,500 in hill/difficult areas
• Rs.1000 crore provided for Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana
• Rs.750 crore allocated for upgrading 300 I.T.I.'s
• Government to provide Rs.16,436 crore as equity support and Rs.3,003 crore as loans to Central Public Sector Enterprises
• Backward region grant fund retained at Rs. 5,800 crore: Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh to get nearly 45 percent of the amount
• Income tax exemption limit hiked to Rs.1.5 lakh: 10 percent tax for income between Rs.1.5 lakh and RS.3 lakh; 20 percent between Rs.3 lakh and Rs.5 lakh. Income above Rs.5,00,001 to attract 30 percent income tax
• Exemption limit for women tax payers increased to Rs.1,80,000 and for senior citizens to Rs.2,25,000
• Excise duty on pharmaceutical sector reduced from 16 percent to 8 percent
• Small cars, Two and three wheelers, Buses and their chassis to cost less
• Threshold limit of exemption for small service providers increased from Rs.8 lakh to Rs.10 lakh
• Cenvat all goods reduced from 16 to 14 percent
• Central Sales tax proposed to be reduced to 2 percent from April'08
• Excise duty on bulk cement brought on par with packaged cement
• PAN made compulsory for all transactions in the financial market subject to suitable exemption limit
• Allocation for defence increased by 10 percent from 96,000 crore to Rs.105,600 crore
• Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya : Rs.130 crore provided in 2008-09, to establish Navodaya Vidyalayas in 20 districts having large concentration of Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes.
• National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship : Rs.750 crore allocated to build up a corpus of Rs.3,000 crore in four years. 1,00,000 Scholarships to be awarded beginning 2008-09.
• Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana : Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to provide health cover of Rs.30,000 for every worker in the unorganized sector falling under the BPL category and his/her family. The Yojana will be launched in Delhi and in the States of Haryana and Rajasthan on April 1,2008. Rs.205 crore provided as the Centre's share of the premium in 2008-09.
• Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS): Remuneration of Anganwadi workers being increased from Rs.1,000 per month to Rs.1,500 per month; Remuneration of Anganwadi Helpers increased from Rs.500 per month to Rs.750 per month; over 18 lakh Anganwadi workers and helpers to benefit; 5,959 ICDS projects and 932,000 Anganwadi and mini-Anganwadi centers functional under ICDS at the end of December 2007.
• Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM) : Allocation for JNNURM increased to Rs.6,866 crore in 2008-09 from Rs.5,482 crore in 2007-08.
• Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission: Allocation for Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Water Mission enhanced to Rs.7,300 crore in 2008-09 as against Rs.6,500 crore in 2007-08.
• Women and Children: Rs. 11,460 crore has been provided for 100% women specific programmes and Rs.16,202 crore for schemes where at least 30 percent allocation is for women specified programmes.
• Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme (AIBP): 24 major and medium irrigation projects and 753 minor irrigation schemes to be completed in 2007-08, creating additional irrigation potential of 500,000 hectare; Outlay for 2008-09 increased to Rs.20,000 crore, from Rs.11,000 crore in 2007-08.
• Rainfed Area development Programme finalised and to be implemented in 2008-09 with an allocation of Rs.348 crore. Priority to those areas that have not been beneficiaries of watershed development schemes.
• Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Micro Irrigation: Rs.500 crore being allocated in 2008-09 with a target of covering 400,000 hectare.
• Against Eleventh Plan target for additional power generation capacity of 78,577 MW Commercial Operation Date (COD) on about 10,000 MW to be achieved by end March 2008.
• Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP): Fourth UMPP at Tilaiya to be awarded shortly; Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orrisa and Tamilnadu urged to bring five more UMPPs to the bidding stage by extending the required support.
• Skill Development Mission: A non-profit corporation to be established with the entrusted mission to address the challenge of imparting the skills required by a growing economy; Rs.15,000 crore proposed to be garnered as capital from Governments, public and private sector, and bilateral/multilateral sources; Government's equity in the proposed non-profit corporation to be Rs.1,000 crore to begin with.
• Public Distribution System: Rs 32,667 crore being provided next year for food subsidy under PDS and other welfare programmes; State of Haryana and the Union Territory of Chandigarh to introduce, on a pilot basis, a smart card based delivery system to deliver food grains under the PDS.
• Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme enlarged with effect from November 19,2007 to include all persons over 65 years falling under the BPL category expanding beneficiary cover from 87 lakh to 157 lakh; Rs.3,443 crore being allocated in 2008-09 as against Rs.2,392 crore in 2007-08.
• Handloom sector: Allocation being increased to Rs.340 crore in 2008-09: Infrastructure and production being scaled up by taking up six centers for development as megaclusters; Varanasi and Sibsagar to be taken up for handlooms, Bhiwandi and Erode for powerlooms, and Naraspur and Moradabad for handicrafts; Each mega-cluster to require about Rs.70 crore ; Initial provision of Rs.100 crore made in 2008-09.