The allocation under passenger amenities in this year’s Railway Budget has been raised to Rs. 1102 crore. The allocation under this head in 2011-12 was Rs. 762 crore. Some of the important passenger and other user friendly measures introduced or being proposed during 2012-13 are:

Proposed Increase not Enough to Cover Impact of Fuel Price Rise in 8 Years Railway Minister Shri Dinesh Trivedi has announced minor increase in fares so as to cause minimal impact on the common man and to keep the burden within tolerance limits in general. He has proposed only 2 paise per km extra for [...]

75 New Express Trains, 21 new Passenger Services, 9 DEMU and 8 MEMU services. 137 Services New Sub-Urban Services to Come up in Mumbai, Chennai & Kolkata . 725 km New Lines to be Introduced

assenger fares increased marginally. The increase will be by 2 paise per km for suburban and ordinary second class; 3 paise per km for mail/express second class; 5 paise per km for sleeper class; 10 paise per km for AC Chair Car, AC 3 tier and First Class; 15 paise per km for AC 2 tier and 30 paise per km for AC I.

The Budget Session, 2012 of Parliament (10th Session of the Fifteenth Lok Sabha and the 225th Session of the Rajya Sabha) commenced today, the 12th of March, 2012 and subject to exigencies of Government Business, the Session will conclude on Tuesday, the 22nd of May, 2012. During this period, the two Houses will adjourn for recess on Friday, the 30th of March 2012, to reassemble on Tuesday, the 24th of April, 2012 to enable the Department–related Parliamentary Standing Committees to examine the Demands for Grants relating to various Ministries/Departments and make their reports to the Houses. The Session will provide 35 sittings – 15 sittings during first part of the Session before recess and 20 sittings during second part of the Session.

Key recommendations of the Parliament Standing Committee on Finance Raise annual income limit for I-T from Rs 1.8 lakh to Rs 3 lakh. 10% I-T on annual income beyond Rs 3 lakh and up to Rs 10 lakh. 20% on annual income beyond Rs 10 lakh and up to Rs 20 lakh. 30% on annual income over Rs 20 lakh

A Parliamentary panel scrutinising the Direct Taxes Code – DTC Bill has suggested raising the income tax exemption limit to 3 lakh rupees from the present 1.8 lakhs. It has also suggested hiking of deduction on savings to 2.5 lakh rupees.

With the direct tax collection growing at a slower pace of 9 per cent this fiscal so far, the government is likely to miss the revenue mop up target for the 2011-12. According to the data released by the finance ministry, the net direct tax mop-up during the April-January period rose 9.28 per cent to Rs 3.46 lakh crore mainly on account higher realisation of personal income tax and corporate tax.

In respect of 2 % interest subvention, banks are required to submit their claims on a half-yearly basis as at September 30, 2011 and March 31, 2012, of which, the latter needs to be accompanied by a Statutory Auditor’s certificate certifying the claims for subvention for the entire year ended March 31, 2012 as true and correct. Any remaining claim pertaining to the disbursements made during the year 2011-12 and not included in the claim for March 31, 2012, may be consolidated separately and marked as an ‘Additional Claim’ and submitted latest by April 30, 2013, duly audited by Statutory Auditors certifying the correctness.

Buoyed by better-than-expected performance on government finances’ front in 2010-11, the Centre on Thursday said it will keep a tab on public expenditure to ensure that Budget targets for this fiscal too are achieved. Efforts to get the economy on the path of fiscal prudence are on track… The government is committed to achieve the fiscal targets, an official statement quoting finance minister Pranab Mukherjee at a meeting of Consultative Committee held on Wednesday said.