BUDGET VIEW-India Business News- Feb 25.

MUMBAI, Feb 25 Indian newspapers carried the following stories related to the budget in their print or Web editions on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

LATEST STORIES:

•  The finance minister may increase the basic exemption limit for individuals from 160,000 rupees to 180,000-200,000 rupees. There could be an increase in the exemption limits for women and senior citizens as well, by 10,000 rupees to 30,000 rupees.

EARLIER STORIES:

•  The Central Board of Excise and Customs has recommended amending the rules to widen the scope of levying service tax on the entertainment business. - Business Standard

•  To ensure that the $20 billion pharmaceutical industry maintains a 15 percent annual growth rate, the department of pharmaceuticals (DoP), has petitioned the finance ministry to offer several excise rebates besides recommending a whole set of new incentives to boost research and development (R&D) in the sector. - Financial Chronicle.

•  The government is likely to allow India Infrastructure Finance Co to use at least 30 billion rupees of the 100 billion rupees it raised last year for its refinance scheme to lend directly to any eligible core-sector project. - Business Line

•  The housing ministry has sought an allocation of 10 billion rupees in the budget, marking a jump of 1.5 billion rupees from 8.5 billion rupees the ministry received last fiscal. The allocation will primarily be spent on various housing schemes. - The Financial Express
  

•  The budgetis expected to lay down a plan to plug loopholes in the double tax avoidance treaties, which cost the Indian exchequer billions in tax revenues. - Business Standard.

•   The government is likely to increase the exemption limit for reimbursement against medical and travel expenses. At present reimbursement of medical expenses up to 15,000 rupees is tax-free, while transport allowance is tax-free up to 800 rupees a month. - Times of India

•  The legislation on food security, that could cost 620 billion rupees, is unlikely to receive any allocation in this federal budget. - DNA

•  The defence ministry is expecting a 15-20 percent increase in it budget allocation for the next fiscal due to rise in expenditure on its modernisation drive and commitments following pay review.--The Financial Express.

•  The federal government's flagship programme the National Rural Health Mission is expected to get a small increase over last year's allocation of 139.3 billion rupees due to budgetary constraints.-- Mint.

•  The finance ministry is looking to replace the public distribution system in the country with food coupons that can be used to buy food items from the open market. This proposal is likely to find a mention in the federal budget.-- Economic Times.

•  The Securities and Exchange Board of India has proposed scrap tax benefits for corporates investing in mutual funds and that the securities and transaction tax should be cut by one-third and a uniform stamp duty be levied and collected by a central agency -- Economic Times.

•  India may reduce wealth tax to 0.25 percent as suggested in the New Direct Tax Code from the current 1 percent-- Economic Times.

•  The income tax exemption limit can be raised a little bit in the upcoming budget to give relief to middle class families and capital outlay for the government's flagship programmes such as Bharat Nirman and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA may to be hiked modestly after steep hikes last year -- Economic Times.

•  India plans to provide funds for its eight climate change projects in the upcoming budget and is tying up funds domestically, according to Shyam Saran, the prime minister's special envoy on climate change -- Economic Times.

•  The budget may have an anti-avoidance provision, which can effectively check convoluted transactions devised exclusively for the purpose of evading taxes in India -- Economic Times.

•  The budget is likely to implement the Congress' poll promise of a Food Security Bill, apart from increasing funds for schemes under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act -- Business Standard.

•  The civil aviation ministry has demanded a gross budgetary support of 19.78 billion rupees for 2010/11 of which 60 percent has been slotted for equity infusion into state-run Air India -- Business Standard.

•  The Planning Commission has recommended cutting short the budget outlay of the power ministry by more than 25 percent to 106.3 billion rupees for the next financial year, against the ministry's demand of 144.3 billion rupees -- Business Standard

•  The environment and forests ministry has sought an outlay of 22 billion rupees, a 17 percent increase from 18.8 billion rupees in 2009/10. -- Business Standard.

•  A first step towards withdrawing the post-crisis fiscal stimulus may be taken in the Union Budget for 2010-11, with an increase in the Cenvat rate for excise duty by 2 percentage points -- Business Standard.

•  The government is likely to extend the 2 percent interest subsidy given to exporters on rupee export credit from March 31 to December 2010 -- Business Standard.

•  The government may take the first step towards fiscal consolidation by partially rolling back tax cuts given to the industry last year. The service tax rate may be restored to 12 percent while excise duty could be increased marginally -- Business Standard.

•  The government may not tinker with corporate tax rates in the budget despite pressure from industry to slash rates -- Financial Express

•   The urban development ministry has sought 100 billion rupees (it received 55 billion rupees in current year) as budget allocation for financial year 2010-11. This is mainly attributed to the large number of ongoing metro projects -- Financial Express

•  SEBI in its proposal has requested finance ministry to reduce securities transaction tax by one-third and rationalise the stamp duty charges, which varies from state to state -- Financial Express

•  As part of a plan to give the poor access to modern financial services, the government will earmark significant funds to fund the creation of a common technology platform that will help reach out to the poorest at a low cost -- Mint

Source : REUTERS