Excise duty on cigarettes raised from 11 percent to 72 percent
* Thirteen more airports to get 24x7 customs facilities
* Excise duty to be cut to revive manufacturing
* Allocation of Rs.500 crore for Delhi's water schemes
* Colour TVs to cost less on reduced customs duties
* Free baggage allowance raised from Rs.35,000 to Rs.45,000
* Gas pipeline grid of 15,000 km needs to be doubled
* Revenue loss of Rs.22,000 crore due to direct tax proposals
* Excise duty on footwear halved
* Total expenditure in 2014-15 estimated at Rs.17,97,892 crore;
plan expenditure estimated at Rs.12,19,892 crore
* Government to take a view on Direct Tax Code
* Six debt recovery tribunals to be set up
* Five new tourist circuits to be established
* World class convention centre to come up in Goa
* IT exemption limit for those below 60 raised from Rs.2 lakhs to
Rs.2.5 lakhs; from Rs.2.5 lakhs to Rs.3 lakhs for senior citizens
* No change in surcharge for corporates; education cess to continue
* Allocation of Rs.1,000 crore for implementing One Rank One
Pension scheme
* War Memorial and War Museum to be established
at Princess Park in New Delhi; Rs.1,000 crore allocated
* Allocation of Rs.50 crore for National Police Memorial
* Allocation of Rs.2.037 crore for creating integrated Ganga
conservation mission
* National sports foundations to be set up for disciplines like
shooting, wrestling and boxing; Jammu and Kashmir gets Rs.200
crore to upgrade sports facilities; Sports university to come up
in Manipur
* Defence allocated Rs.229,000 crore; modernisation gets Rs.5,000
crore over and above interim budget
* Bharat Depository Receipt to be created
* Uniform KYC norms to be introduced across entire financial sector
* Steps to revive SEZs
* Sixteen new port projects to be taken up this fiscal
* Jal Marg Vikas programme to be launched to promote navigation
on Ganga from Allahabad to Haldia
* Hastkala Academy to be set up with allocation of Rs.30 crore
* Six more textile clusters to be set up with allocation of Rs.200 crore
* Corpus of Rs.5,000 crore for long-term loans to farmers
* Kisan TV to be launched to disseminate information in real time
* Allocation of Rs.14,389 crore for rural roads
* Allocation of Rs.50 crore for breeding of indigenous cattle
* Export promotion mission to be established to bring all
stakeholders under one umbrella
* Lok Sabha takes five-minute break during finance minister's
speech. Jaitley permitted to sit and read out on resumption
* FDI limit in insurance sector raised to 49 percent
* All states to get AIIMS like institutions
* Allocation of Rs.100 crore for soil testing facilities
* Second Green Revolution to be launched with focus on
protein revolution
* Allocation of Rs.100 crore to promote good governance
* Allocation of Rs.3,600 crore for drinking water schemes
* Allocation of Rs.500 crore for 5 more IITs and 5 more IIMs
* Allocation of Rs.4,000 crore for National Housing Bank
* Allocation of Rs.500 crore to improve broadband connectivity
in rural areas
* To print currency notes with Braille signs
* Allocation of Rs.150 crore to improve safety of women in
larger cities
* Allocation of Rs.500 crore to provide 24x7 power in rural areas
* Allocation of Rs.100 crore for "Beti bachao, beti padao"
programme
* Allocation of Rs.8,000 crore to improve rural housing
* E-visas to be introduced at nine airports
* New scheme to provide assured irrigation
* Total sanitation in every household by 2019
* Shares of PSU banks to be sold to retail investors
* Aiming at fiscal deficit of 3 percent by 2015-16 and 2 percent
by 2016-17
* FDI in defence sector raised to 49 percent from 26 percent
* CBDT to scrutinize all cases under 2012 law on retrospective
tax cases
* Problem of black money to be fully addressed
* Expenditure Management Commission to be established this
fiscal
* Slow decision-making has resulted in lost opportunities
* Green shoots of recovery in world economy
* Budget will lay down steps aimed at 7-8 percent growth
in next few years
* The aim is "Sub ke saath, sub ka vikas" (With everyone,
For everyone's development)
* Should we be victims of populism?
-RB KISHORE