Highlights of Indian interim Budget

Following are the highlights of the Indian interim budget presented by Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
* Plan expenditure for 2009-10 pegged at IRs.952,231 crore (IRs.9.52 trillion)
* Budgetary support for 2009-10 at IRs.2,85,149 crore (IRs.2.85 trillion), 17.16 percent
* Additional plan expenditure between 0.5 percent to 1 percent of GDP may be considered
* Fiscal deficit forecast 5.5 percent of GDP for 2009-10
* Revenue deficit forecast 4 percent of GDP for 2009-10
* Subsidy for food, fertiliser and petroleum at IRs.95,579 crore
* Defence allocation increased to IRs.141,703 crore (IRs.1.417 trillion)
* Urban renewal spending pegged at IRs.11,842 crore (IRs.118.42 billion)
* Rural sanitation spending at IRs.1,200 crore (IRs.12 billion)
* National rural health mission spending at IRs.12,070 crore (IRs.120.7 billion)
* Rural infrastructure development outlay at IRs.14,000 crore (IRs.140 billion)
* Midday meal scheme spending at IRs.8,000 crore (IRs.80 billion)
* India remains second-fastest growing economy in the world
* Economy expected to grow 7.1 percent this fiscal
* Need to make economic growth inclusive
* Government spent IRs.70,000 crore (IRs.700 billion) on 37 infrastructure projects in 2008-09 * Under public-private partnership (PPP), 54 central infrastructure projects approved
* Total expenditure of PPP projects estimated at IRs.67,700 crore (IRs.677 billion)
* India Infrastructure Finance Company to raise IRs.10,000 crore (IRs.100 billion) by end-March
* India has weathered inflation crisis, but no room for complacency
* Country's agriculture outlook is encouraging
* Focussed attention to agriculture
* Plan allocation for farm sector hiked 300 percent in past five years
* Three-fold increase in short-term agriculture credit to IRs.250,000 crore (IRs.2.5 trillion)
* Farm debt worth IRs.65,300 crore (IRs 653 billion) waived
* Government will continue to provide additional subsidy to farmers
* Corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund hiked to IRs.14,000 crore (IRs.140 billion) from IRs.5,500 crore (IRs.55 billion)
* Outlay for higher education hiked 900 percent for 11th Five Year Plan
* Country's social security net will be strengthened
* New scheme unveiled for young widows in the age group of 18-40
* New disability pension scheme introduced for age group of 18-40
* 15 point programme for welfare of minorities set up
* Record foreign direct investment of $32.4 billion attracted
* Global economic situation not encouraging
* Extraordinary situation merits extraordinary measures
* Need to consider additional fiscal measures in regular budget
* Financial sector reforms need to be accelerated
* Non-performing assets (NPAs) of public sector banks have declined
* State-run banks see NPAs drop from 7.8 percent to 2.3 percent in four years
* Number of loss-making state-run units down from 73 to 58
* Profit-making units up from 143 units to 158 units
* In past three years, India grew by average of over 9 percent
* Per capita income expanded by 4.7 percent per annum
* Fiscal deficit was brought down from 4.5 percent to 2.7 percent
* Revenue deficit was cut from 3.6 percent to 1.1 percent
* Exports increased 26.4 percent per annum
* Foreign trade increased from 27.3 percent to 35.5 percent
* Tax to gross domestic product ratio expanded by 9.2 to 12.5 percent
* Agriculture grew by 3.7 percent per annum
* Revised estimates for 2009-09 peg plan expenditure at IRs.282,957 crore (IRs.2.83 trillion)
* Central plan increased for host of areas like telecom, rural development
* Tax collections expected to fall to IRs.627,949 crore (IRs.6.28 trillion)
* Revised revenue deficit is 4.4 percent of GDP against one percent
* Revised fiscal deficit at 6 percent of GDP against 2.5 percent