BUDGET Views-India Business News

The following measures are under consideration for India's 2009/10 interim budget, according to newspaper reports. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. The interim budget will be presented on Feb. 16.
* The government is likely to come out with sector-specific packages and can consider measures for farmers and general public through tax cuts.
* Measures are likely to ease service tax refund for exporters which are delayed due to procedural requirments.
* The government is likely to exempt exporters form fringe benefit tax for a stipulated period.
* The plan expenditure -- the clasification for development related projects like infrastructure -- is expected to increase by 15 percent.
* Likely measures to boost demand and duty cuts for vans, trucks and auto parts.
* The annual plan outlay for the power sector is expected to to rise by 29 percent, for roads by 14 percent, and for aviation 22 percent, while for shipping it could fall by 23 percent.
* The government is likely to hike its allocation to stae-owned power companies NTPC, NHPC and Power Grid Corp.
* The government is likely to extend tax concessions to the technology parks and 100 percent export units beyond March 2010.
The government is likely to calarify on tax exemption to natural gas producers such as Reliance Industries, ONGC and GSPC.
* The government is likely to maintain defence expenditure, which is currently at 2.5 percent of GDP.
* The goverment is considering an excise duty cut for auto components, automobile and cement sectors. At present excise duty on auto components and cements is 10 percent.
* The IT units set up under the SEZ Act under thier parent companiesare likely to get 100 percent tax holiday. These units are currently not under 100 percent tax holiday.
* The government might consider enhancing depreciation benefits on plant, machinery and commercial vehicle purchases.
* The government is likely to propose raising social sector spending by more than 16 percent, increasing the annual plan by about 400 billion rupees. This is likely to benefit programmes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Bharat Nirman and Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
* The finance ministry has drafted a proposal to remove the securities transaction tax (STT). At present a 0.125 percent tax is levied on all transactions of securities traded on stock exchanges and for derivatives STT stands at 0.017 percent.
source: http://in.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idINBOM40668020090216?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0