Budget always have every one agitated, while a good budget can help you allocate your money and savings better. A bad one can destabilise your financial plans. But this year the women can rejoice because it seems the government has woken up at last.
- FM mentioned women as one of the most important pillar of Indian society (Youth & Poor being the other two).
- To ensure the safety and security of Indian women, the Finance Minister has announced a budget of Rs. 1,000 crore. This has been named ‘Nirbhaya Fund’ in honour of the girl who died after the brutal gang rape in Delhi last year. The usage of funds is not defined yet, the govt. is yet to set up a committee to define & design.
- The government has allocated 1000 crore rupees for the first women’s (women only) public sector bank which will be set up in India. For single women and widows the WCD has been asked to design schemes to ensure that these women get to live with dignity.
- And the duty free limit has been raised from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 for carrying gold during travel.
- Mobile phones priced above Rs 2,000 may get costlier.
- For working women no revision in tax slabs has taken place. But a tax credit of Rs 2000 for income upto Rs 5 lakh has been introduced.
- The excise duty on cigarettes and cigars has been increased by 18 per cent.
- However, in an unfair move they have decided to levy a service tax on all air conditioned restaurants, earlier it was only on the air conditioned restaurants serving liquor.
- For the housewives, the duty has been upped on imported set top boxes, the cost of the boxes manufactured in India will remain the same. The bad news is that minsters say the increase in household products (like cooking gas) might be introduced in the starting of the financial year i.e. April.
Do you think it is a fair budget?
