Union Budget 2009 highlights

Today Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented Union Budget 2009-2010. A few highlights of the budget are as follow:

• Mandate for continuity and stability: Pranab
• Need to sustain growth of 9% per annum at the earliest: Pranab
• Will create close to 12 million jobs
• Domestic industry showing signs of recovery
• Agriculture credit to be 3.35 lakh crore
• Significant foreign capital inflow increase
• Farm loan waiver period increased by six months
• Allocation of railways increased to 15,800cr
• Fiscal stimulus of 1,86,000cr provided
• LNG infrastructure in the country being expanded
• Rs 3937cr for improvement of urban poor
• Funding to NHAI stepped up by 23%
• Fiscal deficit grew from 2.7% to 6.8% of GDP
• Local production of petroleum products to double
• Sensitive to youth expectations: Pranab
• Competitive education system: Pranab
• Govt to set up expert group on pricing of petroleum products
• Subsidy regime for fertilisers to change to nutrient- based rather than price-based
• To return to FRBM target for fiscal discipline at the earliest
• Extension of stimulus package for print media by another six months beyond June 30 in view of the economic downturn
• IT return forms to be made more user friendly
• Export Credit Guarantee scheme extended till March 2010
• Incentives in interest rates to farmers to pay back agriculture loans in time
• Banks and insurance firms to remain in public sector
• Allocation for market development assistance scheme enhanced by 148 percent
• Rs 100 crore to be given as one time grant in aid to expand banks in unbanking area
• 'Aam admi' is focus of all our programmes and schemes, says Mukherjee

After the announcement of the budget market crashes heavily. Each sector was down. Red Red everywhere, in the morning, markets open a bit higher from the alst close, but as soon as the day progresses, and the budget was announced the Sensex started declining, and at the end of the day it close below 570 points.