Budget 2007-08: Highlights

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Highlights of Union Budget 2006

Chidambaram began the Budget speech with a series of sops to boost agriculture and social sectors. The defence allotment, too, has gone up by Rs 6,000 crore and now stands at a record Rs 89,000 crore.

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The Government is concerned about the inflation but it is confident that it will not affect growth, said Finance Minister P Chidambaram while presenting the Union Budget on Wednesday.

GDP growth will be 9.02 per cent this year, the Finance Minister said. The Government promises to bring out a number of measures to make agriculture profitable.

Chidambaram also announced that bank credit rate grew by 29 per cent during first 10 months of 2006-07.

There will be no new forward contract to be launched on wheat and rice from today. He said that Abhijit Sen report on forward trading to be submitted in two months' time.

Chidambaram added that additional irrigation potential of 24 lakh hectares to be implemented, including nine lakh hectares under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme.

About 15,054 villages have been covered under rural telephony and efforts to be made to complete the target of covering 20,000 villages by 2006-07.

According the Budget allocation on healthcare will increase by 21.9 per cent and allocation for education to be enhanced by 34.2 per cent.

Highlights of Union Budget for 2007-08.

• Inflation during 2006-07 estimated at between 5.2 and 5.4 per cent against 4.4 per cent during the previous year. The Finance Minister said that he is confident of managing inflation.
• Bank credit rate grew by 29 per cent during first 10 months of 2006-07.
• Additional irrigation potential of 24 lakh hectares to be implemented, including nine lakh hectares under Accelerated Irrigation Benefit Programme.
• Economy in a stronger position than ever before, Chidambaram said.
• 15,054 villages have been covered under rural telephony and efforts to be made to complete the target of covering 20,000 villages by 2006-07.
• Allocation on Healthcare to increase by 21.9 per cent.
• Allocattion for education to be enhanced by 34.2 per cent.
• Two lakh more teachers to be employed and five lakh more classrooms to be constructed.
• Secondary education allowance to be increased from Rs 1,837 crore to Rs 3,794 crore.
• The Finance Minister confirmed that the Government is committed to fiscal reforms.
• Foreign exchange reserves stand at 180 billion dollars.
• Allocation under Rajiv Gandhi Drinking Mission stepped up from Rs 4,680 crore to Rs 5,850 crore.
• Already a number of steps on fiscal, monetary and supply management side have been taken, the Finance Minister said.
• Annual target of 15 lakh houses under Bharat Nirmal Programme to be exceeded.
• Allocation for National Rural Health Mission stepped up from Rs 8,207 crore to Rs 9,947 crore.
• Gross budgetary support in 2007-08 raised to Rs 2,05,100 crore from 1,72,728 crore in 2006-07. Of this, budgetary support to the Central plan will go up to 1,54,939 crore against 1,72,728 crore.
• Allocation for AIDS control programme to be raised to Rs 969 crore.
• School dropout rates high. To prevent dropout, a National Means-cum-Merit scholarship to be implemented, with an allocation of Rs 6,000 per child.
• Rs 1,290 crore to be provided for elimination of polio. Intensive coverage will be undertaken in 20 districts in UP and 10 districts in Bihar. This will be integrated into NRHM.
• Measures for significant improvement of health care in rural area.
• 130 more districts under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). Additional allocation of Rs.12,000 crore for it.
• Rs 800 crore for Sampoorna Gram Rozgar Yojana in districts not covered by NREGA. Swarna Jayanti Swarozgar Yojana allocation increased from Rs 250 crore to Rs 344 crore.
• Allocation for schemes only for SCs and STs to be increased to Rs 3,271 crore.
• Rs 63 crore for share capital for National Minorities Development Finance Corporation following Sachar Committee recommendations.
• Allocation for SC/ST scholarships enhanced from Rs 440 crore to Rs 611 crore.
• Scholarships programme for minorities students to be of the order of Rs 72 crore for pre-metric, Rs 48 crore for graduate and postgraduate.
• Total Budget for the Northeastern region raised from Rs 12,041 crore to Rs 14,365 crore. New Industrial Policy for the northeastern region to be in place before March 31.
• Rs 7,000 crore allocation for better tax administration to be used for social schemes.
• Rs 2,25,000 crore farm credit proposed in the new budget. A target of additional 50 lakh farmers to be brought under farm credit.
• Farmers' credit likely to reach Rs.1,90,000 crore as against the targeted Rs.1,75,000 crore during 2006-07.
• Rs 100 crore allocated for National Rainfed Area Authority.