Vote on account 2014: Highlights

Finance minister P Chidambaram has rejected the charge of policy paralysis as he presented his interim Union Budget in Parliament on Monday. Here are the highlights of the vote on account 2014.

* Fiscal deficit for current fiscal to be 4.6% 

* Revenue deficit estimated at 3% for current fiscal 

* 140m people lifted out of poverty in last 10 years 

* Excise duty on SUVs cut from 30 to 24%, in large and mid-segment cars from 27-24% to 24-20% 

* Excise duty on small cars, motorcycles and commercial vehicles cut from 12% to 8%; appropriate cut to be done on chassis, trailers 

* A Rs 100 crore scheme formulated to promote community radio stations: Chidambaram 

* RBI must strike a balance between growth and moderating inflation, Chidambaram says

* We must focus on manufacturing, specially manufacturing for exports: Chidambaram

* I am disappointed that we could not introduce GST: Chidambaram

* No changes in tax laws in interim budget

* Govt has obtained information in 67 cases of illegal offshore accounts of Indians: Chidambaram

* Excise duty cut from 12 to 10 per cent in capital goods sector to stimulate growth

* Excise duty on mobile handset to be 6% on CENVAT credit to encourage domestic production

* Excise duty on small cars, motorcycles and SUVs reduced

* Service tax relief storage for warehousing for rice

* Blood banks to be exempt from service tax
* Rs 500 crore estimated requirement for implementing one-rank-one-pay scheme for armed forces in 2014-15

* Rs 6000 crore to rural housing fund, Rs 2000 crore for urban housing fund

* Minority bank accounts have swelled to 43,53,000 by 2013-14 from 14,15,000 bank accounts 10 years ago

* Rs 3711 crore for minority affairs; housing and urban poverty alleviation gets Rs 6000 crore

* Social justice ministry gets Rs 6730 crore; panchayati raj ministry Rs 7000 crore

* Moratorium on interest on student loans taken before March 31, 2009; to benefit 9 lakh borrowers

* Public Debt Management Bill ready

* Fiscal deficit target of 3% to be achieved by 2017

* Fiscal deficit to be contained at 4.6% of GDP in 2013-14.

* CAD will be $45 billion in 2013-14

* Foreign exchange reserves up by $15 billion

* Foodgrain production estimated at 263 million tons in 2013-14

* Agriculture credit will cross $45 billion against $41 billion in 2012-13

* 296 projects worth Rs 6,60,000 crore cleared by Cabinet Committee on Investment by end January 2014

* Merchandise export to grow by 6.8% to $326 billion

* 3 more industrial corridors — Chennai-Bangalore, Bangalore-Mumbai, Amritsar-Kolkata — under various stages of implementation

* GDP growth rate in Q3 and Q4 of 2013-14 will be at least 5.2%

* Declining fiscal deficit, moderation of CAD, stable exchange rate and increase in project implementation result of hardwork

* Power capacity rises to 234,600 MW in 10 years

* Expenditure on education has risen from Rs 10,145 crore 10 years ago to Rs 79,251 crore this year

* Sugar decontrol, gradual correction of diesel prices, application for new bank licenses, sick electricity distribution companies restructured

* Average growth under UPA's ten year rule was 6.2 per cent against 5.9 during NDA period of 1999-2004

* Average growth under UPA-I was 8.4 per cent and UPA-II 6.6 per cent

* PSUs to achieve record capex of Rs 2,57,645 crore in 2013-14

* 500 MW fast breeder nuclear reaction in Kalpakkam to be ready shortly; 7 nuclear power reactors under construction

* National Solar Mission to undertake 4 ultra mega solar power projects in 2014-15

* Rs 1,200 crore additional assistance to N-E states to be released before end of the year

* Rs 1,000 crore grant for Nirbhaya Fund will be non-lapsable; another Rs 1,000 crore to be given next fiscal

* Rs 3,370 crore to transferred to 2.1 crore LPG users

* Govt committed to Aadhaar-based LPG transfer but scheme on hold temporarily

* Aadhaar is tool for empowerment

* Non-plan expenditure to exceed by a small amount in 2013-14

* 500 MW fast breeder test reactor in Kalpakkam to be ready shortly; 7 nuclear power reactors under construction

* Plan expenditure will be Rs 5,55,322 crore in 2014-15, unchanged from last fiscal

* Budgetary support to railways increased from Rs 26,000 crore to Rs 29,000 crore 2014-15

* Rs 2,46,397 crore allocated for food, fertilizer and fuel subsidy

* Food subsidy will be Rs 1,15,000 crore for implementation of National Food Security Act

* Defence allocation increased by 10 per cent to Rs 2.24 lakh crore

Source:-The Times of India