The Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee has announced full exemption from basic customs duty and a concessional CVD of 1 per cent to Steam coal for a period of two years till March 31, 2014. While presenting the Union Budget 2012-13 in Lok Sabha today Shri Mukherjee also proposed full exemption from basic duty to Natural Gas and Liquified Natural Gas and Uranium concentrate, Sintered Uranium Dioxide in natural and pellet form.

The Tonnage Tax Scheme introduced vide Finance Act 2005 provides for taxation of income of a shipping company on presumptive basis. Under this scheme, the operating profit of a shipping company is determined on the basis of tonnage capacity of its ships.

In order to further garner additional resources, the Finance Minister has proposed to enhance basic customs duties on completely built units of large cars/ Multi-Utility Vehicles/ Sports Utility Vehicles having engine capacity above prescribed threshold from 60 percent to 75 per cent ad valorem.

It was a realist budget in the difficult economic and political environment. Effort was made towards fiscal consolidation, infrastructure development, revival of manufacturing sector, easing of credit facilities, direct transfer of subsidy etc. Major Tax proposals are as follows:

Presenting the Budget in the LokSabha today, the Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee has proposed concessions and exemptions for encouraging the consumption of energy-saving devices, plant and equipment needed for solar thermal projects. The Finance Minister proposed to fully exempt a coating chemical used for compact fluorescent lamps from basic customs duty. Excise duty on LED lamps is also being reduced to 6 per cent.

Excise duty rationalized for packaged cement, whether manufactured by mini-cement plants or others. – Levy of excise duty of 1 per cent on branded precious metal jewellery to be extended to include unbranded jewellery. Operations simplified and measures taken to minimize impact on small artisans and goldsmiths. – Branded Silver jewellery exempted from excise duty.

The Government will present its 81st Budget proposals in the history of independent India, when the Finance Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, tomorrow reads out his taxation and other economic policies before the Parliament. Individually, Mr Mukherjee will present the Union Budget for the seventh time, the second-highest by any Finance Minister.

The extent of higher education is generally measured by enrolment ratio in higher education; by taking the ratio of persons in all age group enrolled in various programs to total population in age group of 18 to 23. The current level of GER in India stands at a figure of about 13% it is very low if we compared to world average of 23.2%, 36.5% for developing countries and 45% for developed countries. The government thus has an enormous task in hand to improve the GER to bring it somewhere close to other developing countries as otherwise the country would continue to remain divided not only in terms of wealth-distribution but also in the more fundamental aspects like education and health.

RAILWAY BUDGET 2012-13- List of new Express Trains, Passenger Trains, MEMU, DEMU, Extension of run and increase in frequency of trains announced in Railway Budget 2012-13.

137 Additional Sub-Urban Services for Mumbai,Chennai & Kolkata -Minister for Railways Shri Dinesh Trivedi said with a view to further enhancing the carrying capacity of suburban services additional services are being introduced in Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. These include 75 new services in Mumbai, 18 in Chennai and 44 in Kolkata area.