Ways in which the Union budget 08 affects all of us:

Small cars to be cheaper

Excise duty on small cars reduced to 12 per cent from 16 per cent and hybrid cars to 14 per cent.

Farm Loan Waiver:

1. Complete loan waiver to small and marginal farmers
2. One time settlement of loans to other farmers
3. Implementation of debt waiver and debt relief by 30 June 08
4. The loan waiver scheme will benefit three crore small and medium farmers and cover loans totalling Rs 50,000 crore.

Three more IITs to be set up

1. Three IITs to be set up in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan.
2. Twenty per cent hike in education budget this year from Rs 28,674 crore to Rs 34,400 crore.
3. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan will be provided Rs 13,100 crore, Mid Day Meal scheme Rs 8,000 crore, Secondary education Scheme Rs 4,554 crore.
4. 410 additional Kasturba Gandhi Vidyalaya to be set up in backward blocks.

Defence Budget hiked by 10%:

1. Allocation for defence to be increased by 10 per cent from Rs 96,000 crore to Rs 1,05,600 crore.
2. Rs 500 crore for identifying urgent needs of development programmes of border areas like Arunachal Pradesh.
3. To protect tigers, Rs 50 crore for National Tiger Conservation Programme. Bulk of it to be used to raise Tiger Protection Force.

Raised IT Exemption:

1. Threshold of exemption for all Income Tax assesses raised from Rs 110,000 to Rs 150,000.
2. Every income tax assessees to get relief of minimum of Rs 4,000.
3. No change in rate of surcharge.
4. New tax slabs will be: 10 per cent for Rs 150,000 to Rs 300,000, 20 per cent for Rs 300,000 to Rs 500,000 and 30 per cent above Rs 500,000.
5. For women, the income tax limit goes up from Rs 1.45 lakh to Rs 1.80 lakh. In case of senior women citizens, it increases from Rs 1.95 lakh to Rs 2.25 lakh.