P Chindambaram presented UPA government's populist election budget with considering elections in mind. His speech was not so interesting but the content was.

Taxation: Capital Gains Tax hiked

1. No change in Corporate Tax
2. No change in surcharge
3. Short term Capital Gains Tax hiked 15%
4. Post office time deposit under 80C
5. Medical Insurance premium for parents liable for exemption under 80B of IT Act
6. 2-3-4 star hotels to get 5 year tax holiday
7. Non filter cigarettes to have more tax.
8. 55% of GDP is from services
9. Asset management services to ULIP
10. Services provided by stock exchanges, Customized software to come under service tax
11. Banking cash transactions to be withdrawn from April 1 2007
12. Central sales tax to be reduced to 2% from 3%

Personal Taxation: Bonanza for Middle Class :

1. Tax exemption limit raised to 1.5 lakhs
2. Tax slab above 5 lakhs is 30%
3. Tax slab between 3-5 lakhs 20%
4. Tax slab between 1.5 to 3 lakhs is 10%
5. Income Tax exemption for women (at 1.8 lakhs)
6. Tax relief for senior citizens

Duty cuts

1. Coconut drinks
2. Water purification devices
3. Breakfast cereals
4. Wireless data cards
5. Refrigeration equipment
6. Small cars : Advantage to TATA Motors, Maruti, Hyundai and General Motors
7. 2-3 wheelers to attract lesser excise at 12%
8. Excise duty on Pharma halved to 8%

Major Allocations:

1. Higher growth rate, changes in attitude and stricter compliance helped tax collection
2. Smart card based delivery system for public distribution system to be taken up on pilot basis
3. Pan to be made compulsory for all financial market transactions
4. Defence allocation up to 1.05 lakh crore
5. Rural housing loans at 4% interest to be made available
6. Sixth pay commission for Govt employees to submit report by March 2008
7.  Rs 75 to ICCR to promote Indian art, movies
8.  Completion ratio is 96% on the golden quadrangular national highway project
9. 3.5 billion to 8 billion expected during next round of bidding for 53 oil blocks
10. 17 lakh families of weavers to be included under insurance schemes
11. Steps to create a transparent credit trading system
12. Skill development programme to be launched with a non profit corporation being set up with Rs 15,000 crore capital

Growth Story: One more year before eliminating Revenue Deficit

1. Average growth rate 8.8%. Dream of 10% rate is not realistic.
2. 10.7% and 9.4% growth for services and manufacturing respectively
3. Agriculture growth rate estimated at 2.6%
4. Capital inflows in excess of current account deficit
5. Revenue deficit is at 1.4%
6. Fiscal deficit pegged at 3.1% as against 3.2% estimated last year

Agri bonanza: Rs. 60,000 crore loans to farmers waived off

1. Record high: Foodgrain output at 219.32 million tonnes
2. Agri credit doubled in 2 yrs cumulating to 2.40 lakh crore by end of this fiscal year
3. Credit target for Agri: Rs 2,80,000 by 2009
4. Additional 4 lakh hectare to be brought under drip irrigation programme
5. Irrigation and Water Resources Finance Corporation to be set up
6. Coconut, cashew and pepper to be revived as cash crops
7. 250 districts to have fully fitted mobile soil testing facility by March 2009
8. Crop insurance scheme to be extended to more cash crop
9. Complete waiver of all loans for marginal and small farmers
10. For other farmers there would be a one time waiver

Education: IITs for Bihar, Rajasthan, Andhra

1. Allocation to education up by 20%
2. Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh to get IITs
3. New scholarships for scientific study and research
4. IT Ministry gets Rs 100 crore to set up knowledge network
5. 16 Central Universities to be established
6. All national institutions to be networked on knowledge network
7. Two institutes for Planning and Management

Health

1. Health allocation increased by 15% finally.

Employment

1. Rs 30,000 cover for unorganised sector labourers
2. Rs 16,000 crore allocated for the employment sector
3. Rs 16,447 crore allocated to the North eastern region for development
4. More minority recruitment for Central Para military forces

Banking and Insurance

1. 256 Public sector bank branches started, 288 more to come up by March'08
2. ULIPs are now under service tax net

Public Sector Units: Over 16000 crore equity support by 2009

1. Rs. 16,436 crore as equity support to Central PSUs in 2008-09
2. More public sector units to be divested of govt. stakes

Manufacturing: Growth in double digits

1. Target growth rate to get in double digits

Power

1. Over 10,000 mw power would be added to the grid by March 2008.

Advantage: Reliance Energy, NTPC and TATA Power are expected to gain.

Child care and Welfare

1. Mid-day meal extended to upper primary classes
2. National program for elderly Rs 800 crore, Geriatric medical facilities to be set up on eleventh plan

Broad vision

1. Monitor foreign fund inflows
2. Boost for Education, Health
3. Rs.38,286 crore increased in Budget allocation to plan size
4. Rs.1,280 crore set aside for Bharat Nirman
5. Rs.11.4 crore children covered in mid-day meal system