Union Budget 2014: 25 Key Points

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented his first budget today. He started his budget speech with a reality check amid high expectations by saying no miracle should be expected in the very first budget and he expected growth to rise to 7-8% over three to four years. He also said that achche din will definitely come but it will not happen overnight and will take some time.

During his budget speech, Jaitley asked Speaker Sumitra Mahajan for a five-minute break, which was granted. It was perhaps for the first time that a finance minister asked for a break while presenting the budget. Later, he complained of breathlessness when he resumed his speech and was asked by the Speaker to deliver the speech sitting down.

Jaitley said the people below poverty line want to raise themselves above it. While higher growth is important, we cannot ignore the fact that the poor suffer the most. Emphasising on poverty alleviation, he said slum development would be included in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities.

Here are the key points of his maiden budget speech:

· No changes in tax rates for individuals
· Personal income tax limit increased by Rs 50,000 for people below 60 years
· Tax exemption limit for small and marginal, and senior tax payers changed from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh
· Investment limit under 80C raised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh
· Rs 100 crore for modernisation of madrasas
· Development of Metro rails in PPP mode; Rs 100 crore set aside for Metro scheme in Ahmedabad and Lucknow
· Rs 500 crore for digital India programme to ensure broadband connectivity at village level, transparency in governance
· Govt proposes to set up five new IIMs, four new AIIMS and five new IITs
· Jaitley announces 'Beti padhao, beti badhao yojana', sets aside Rs 100 crore for this
· 15 new Brail presses to be established and revival of 10 existing announced
· Rs 200 crore set aside to support Gujarat govt in the Sardar Patel statue installtion: Jaitley
· Sanitation: Government intends to cover every household in the country by 2019
· Govt to provide finance to five lakh landless farmers through NABARD
· Rs 100 crore set aside for Kisan Television to provide real time information on various farming and agriculture issues
· Trade facilitation centre to promote handloom work in Varanasi
· New airports to be developed through PPP mode in tier-II and tier-III cities
· Rs 4200 crore set aside for 'Jal Marg Vikas' project on river Ganga connecting Allahabad to Haldia, over a distance of 1620km
· Retrospective tax amendment to be undertaken with extreme caution
· Rs 3600cr set aside for National Rural Drinking Water
· Rs 2.29 lakh crore allocated for defence sector
· Hope to implement goods and service tax this year
· Annual PPF ceiling to be raised to Rs 1.5 lakh, from Rs 1 lakh
· FM announces 'Namami Ganga' - an integrated Ganga Development Project; Rs 2037 crore set aside for this
· Sports university to be set up in Manipur, Rs 100 crore to be provided for this
· FDI in insurance to be hiked to 49%