The Railway Budget presented by Ms. Mamata Banerjee is a classic example of this art of deception.

The Railway budget promises the people of the country a plethora of projects including, 1000 KM of new railway track, new trains, new world class stations, adarsh stations, multi-functional complexes, Dedicated Freight Corridor, women commando force for security, new safety measures, multi-level parking facilities, hospitals, colleges, automobile hubs, new wagon factories, axle factories, wheel factories etc etc. The real story behind all these tall announcements only exposes the deceptive politics of Ms. Mamata Banerjee. Let us elaborate.

In a relief to individual tax payers, the Union budget 2010-11 changed the slabs cutting the rate to 10 percent for income up to Rs 5 lakh, while leaving the threshold limit for tax-free income unchanged at Rs 1.6 lakh.

In the revised tax slab there will be no tax till Rs 1.6 Lakh.

For Income between Rs 1.6 Lakh to Rs 5 Lakh it will attract 10 percent tax limit.

For income between Rs 5 lakh and 8 lakh, 20 perecnt tax rate will be applicable.

• ALLOCATION UNDER NREGA ENHANCED TO Rs. 40,100 CRORE
• BACKWARD REGIONS GRANT FUND ALLOCATION GOES UP BY 26%

The Ministry of Rural Development has been provided a budgetary allocation of Rs. 66,100 crore for the financial year 2010-11. This was announced by the Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee while presenting the Union Budget 2010-11 in the Lok Sabha . The proposed allocation underlines the focus of Government on development of rural infrastructure.

The Union Cabinet has approved the Women’s Reservation Bill providing 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament and State Legislative Assemblies.

The Bill is likely to come in this session of Parliament.

GENERAL BUDGET: 2010-11

Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Union Finance Minister, while presenting the Union Budget in Lok Sabha today, said that the wide-ranging discussions on the Direct Tax Code (DTC) with stakeholders have been concluded and the government will be in a position to implement the DTC from April 1, 2011.

• Rs. 400 CRORE FOR EXTENDING GREEN REVOLUTION IN EASTERN INDIA
• 60,000 ‘PULSES AND OIL SEED VILLAGES’ PLANNED FOR RAINFED AREAS
• FIVE MORE MEGA FOOD PARKS PROPOSED

GENERAL BUDGET 2010-11

Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Union Finance Minister, while presenting the Union Budget in Lok Sabha, said that the government intends to follow a four-pronged strategy covering (a) agricultural production; (b) reduction in wastage of produce; (c) credit support to farmers; and (d) a thrust to the food processing sector.

In the General Budget 2010-11 presented by the Finance Minister Shri PranabMukherjee in the Lok Sabha , the income tax slabs for individuals have been revised. The new slabs will be as under:

The Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee announced in his Budget speech in Lok Sabha  that it is proposed to formalize a symbol for the Indian Rupee in the ensuing years. The proposed symbol will appropriately reflect and capture the Indian ethos and culture.

With this, Indian Rupee will join the select club of currencies such as the US Dollar, British Pound Sterling, Euro and Japanese Yen that have a clear distinguishing identity, said the Finance Minister.

There has been a decline of about 50% in the Gangetic Dolphin population. This has been reported by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Population estimates reported by IUCN in 2008 show that lower range of the total metapopulation abundance for Gangetic Dolphin is 1200-1800. However, the true numbers would be several times as high, because areas with potentially large numbers of animals have not been accounted in the above estimation. The main reasons for decline in population of the species are poaching, habitat degradation, heavy siltation, construction of barrages causing physical barrier for this migratory species, toxic contaminants and entrapment in fishing gear. 

GENERAL BUDGET 2010-11

The Union Budget this year has aimed to focus on inclusive growth and insuring food security. These concerns for aam aadami have gone hand in hand with credible measures for improving investment climate, strengthening infrastructure and fiscal consolidation. As the country looks to ‘quickly revert to high GDP growth path’ in the wake of ‘uncertain times’, concerns for inclusive growth targeting the disadvantaged sections form the defining features of the Budget.

Many new initiatives have been introduced for sustained and inclusive growth. These include setting up of Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojana, Financial Stability and Development Council, Gold Regulatory Authority, Technical Advisory Group for Unique Projects, National Mission for Delivery of Justice and Legal Reforms, Independent Evaluation Office  and National Clean Energy Fund,

GENERAL BUDGET 2010-11

• THE FINANCE MINISTER SHRI PRANAB MUKHERJEE  LAYS EMPHASIS ON CONSOLIDATED GROWTH, IMPROVING INVESTMENT ENVIRONMENT, INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT AND STRENGTHENING  TRANSPARENCY AND PUBLIC ACCOUNTABILITY IN BUDGET 2010-11.
• THE TOTAL EXPENDITURE PROPOSED IN THE BUDGET ESTIMATES IS RS.11,08,749 CRORE , AN INCREASE OF 8.6 PER CENT OVER LAST YEAR.
• THE PLAN AND NON-PLAN EXPENDITURE ESTIMATED AT RS.3,73,092 CRORE AND RS.7,35,657 CRORE RESPECTIVELY, AN INCREASE OF 15 PERCENT IN PLAN EXPENDITURE AND 6 PER CENT IN NON-PLAN EXPENDITURE OVER THE BE OF PREVIOUS YEAR.

The Union Budget 2010-11 presented by the UPA Government will neither stimulate growth nor bring down inflation. The Budget is premised upon a flawed strategy to meet the budget deficit by increasing indirect taxes across the board, especially on diesel and petrol, which will hit the common people, primarily the poorer sections. In contrast, direct taxes on the affluent sections have been reduced. This anti-people strategy will further fuel inflation in the backdrop of an already high food inflation rate of 20%.

GENERAL BUDGET 2010-11

To ameliorate the negative environmental consequence sand increased pollution levels associated with industrialisation and urbanisation, a number of proactive steps have been proposed in the Budget 2010-11.  This was announced by the Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee in his Budget speech in Parliament .

Like in the previous years, there have been many different reactions to this year’s Railway Budget also. But, there is unanimity on one point that this was prepared with an eye on the common man. Presenting her second budget in eight months, the Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee said in the Lok Sabha yesterday that between the two objectives of economic viability of projects and social responsibility of the Railways, she considered the second one more important. She said that the Indian Railways should provide connectivity to all places and by doing so, target inclusive growth. Ms Banerjee said that she received more than 5000 requests from different sections of the people to connect industrial hubs, tourist centers and religious places but, could not meet all expectations for paucity of funds. Despite this constraint, however, she made an honest beginning to meet the goals she had set in her Vision 2020 document announced some time ago. The Vision 2020 is an ambitious document promising to make the Indian Railways a modern and efficient transport system.

The Railway Budget presented in Parliament exposed a sharp deterioration in the performance of the Indian Railways. Far from containing any vision for the future of the Indian Railways, the Budget speech has sought to conceal gross failures through misleading announcements and gimmicks aimed at the forthcoming Assembly elections in West Bengal

Over 120 railway accidents have taken place so far during this financial year. In this backdrop it is inexplicable how the allocations for the Railway Safety Fund has been cut by Rs. 579 crore from last year. Moreover, the Minister has strangely tried to shift the blame for railway accidents on to rail rokos and natural disasters! This shows the Minister’s distorted perspective on the crucial aspect of railway safety.

As per the Railway Ministry’s own estimates, over 1.7 lakhs Railway posts were lying vacant in 2009, out of which nearly 90,000 were posts related to railway safety. The Minister has kept completely silent on filling up these vacancies, which can provide job opportunities to the youth.

The Economic Survey presented to Parliament says that the economy has bounced back from the global economic slowdown and is on its way to the growth path of  9per cent.  The CSO estimate of 7.2 per cent GDP growth for 2009-10 reflects the fast paced recovery given the Index of Industrial Production  (IIP) posting a record 16.8 per cent year-on-year growth during the month of December 2009.  The Survey says that the economy has responded well to the policy measures undertaken in the wake of global financial crisis.  It says, the adverse impact due to the delayed and sub-normal monsoon has been contained to a large extent and a better than average rabi agricultural season is expected.  The Survey says that the recovery is well founded with pick up in merchandise exports, capital flows and non-bank food credit.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tabled the Economic Survey 2009-10 and Report of the 13th Finance Commission in LokSabha  which takes stock of the economy and also the impact of stimulus on industry.

Following are the highlights of Economic Survey 2009-10 :

The details of the project proposals received from State Governments for declaration is as National Projects is given below.  High Powered Steering Committee, Expenditure Finance Committee/Project Investment Board and thereafter by the Government is the  channel for clearances of the project to be declared as national project.

In addition to the Seven Central Government SEZs and 12 State/ Private SectorSEZs set up prior to the enactment of SEZ Act, 2005, formal approval have been accorded to 571 proposals out of which 348 SEZs have been notified. A total of 105 SEZs are already exporting.

The preparations for the ensuing Population Census 2011 has commenced with the formal notification of the intent of the Government of India to conduct Census of India in 2011 with the reference date as March 1, 2011. The Census operations are conducted in two phases. The first phase which is Houselisting & Housing Census precedes the population enumeration by about 8 to 9 months. The main purpose of the Houselisting Operations is to prepare the frame for undertaking population enumeration, besides providing host of data on housing stock, amenities and the assets available with each of the household. The Houselisting & Housing Census would be conducted from April to September 2010. The time schedule in each State is being notified. In the second phase -