Following are the Budget 2008-09 key points, which in some way might matter to the Indian retail fraternity. Indiaretailing penned down the following from Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s speech that was delieverd in the parliament today.
• No change in peak rate of customs duty
• PAN to be required for all transaction in the securities market
• Small service providers to go out of the tax barrier
• No changes for the corporate taxpayers
• Central sales tax to be reduced to two per cent from April 2008
• Excise duty on buses & chassis cut from 16 per cent to 12 per cent
• CENVAT reduced from 16 per cent to 14 per cent on all goods
• Few IT, hardware components exempted from customs duty
• Customs duty on few bulk drugs cut to 5 per cent vs 10 per cent
• Customs duty on project imports cut to 5 per cent vs 7.5 per cent
• Direct tax proposals revenue neutral
• Central sales tax cut to 2 per cent from 3 per cent
• Banking cash transaction tax withdrawn
• Securities transaction tax (STT) rates unchanged
• Dividend distribution tax (DDT) unchanged at 15 per cent
• Government to introduce commodities transaction tax like STT
• Levy of STT only on option premiums
• Short-term cap gains hiked to 15 per cent
• Production of seeds added to VAT list
• 10 per cent income tax for income in the range of Rs 1.5-3 lakh
• 30 per cent income tax for income above Rs 5 Lakh
• No change in corporate tax
• Personal income tax exemption slab for women at Rs 1.8 lakh
• Personal income tax exemption slab at Rs 1.5 lakh
• Filter, non-filter cigarettes to be taxed at par
• Excise duty on bulk cement at Rs 400/tonne
• Exise cut on all pharma goods at 8 per cent vs 16 per cent
• Excise duty on some paper types cut to 10 per cent from 12 per cent
