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Our agenda for the next year is, therefore,to ‘Transform India’in this direction. My Budget proposals are, therefore, built on this transformative agenda with nine distinctpillars.  These include:

 
(i)                Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare:           with focus on doublingfarmers’ income in five years; 
(ii)              Rural  Sector:  with  emphasis on  rural  employment  and infrastructure;  

(iii)            Social Sector including Healthcare:  to cover all under welfare andhealth services;  

(iv)            Education,  Skills and Job  Creation:           to make  India  a knowledge based and productive society;  

(v)              Infrastructure  and  Investment:  to  enhance  efficiency and qualityof life;  

(vi)            Financial Sector Reforms: to bring transparency and stability;  

(vii)          Governance and Ease of Doing Business:to enable the people to ealize their full potential;  

(viii)        Fiscal  Discipline:         prudent  management of  Government finances and delivery of benefits to the needy; and  

(ix)            Tax Reforms: to reduce compliance burden with faith in the citizenry.  

In each of these themes,I shall outline specific policy measuresand initiatives which would have a transformative impact on our economy and the lives of our people.  I.     AgricultureandFarmers’ Welfare

  IX.    Tax Reforms I now turn to Tax Reformswhich is elaborated in Part B of my Budget Speech.

   

PART B   Madam Speaker, I shall now present my tax proposals           The Government acknowledges the role of taxpayersin nation building.Each rupee of tax contributes towards the Government’s efforts to providebetter infrastructure, rural revival and social well-being. Taxation is a major tool availableto Government for removingpoverty and inequality from the society.The posterity will not forgive us if we do not use this opportunity in this perspective.

Simplification  and  rationalization  of   taxation           The Government has already accepted many recommendations of Tax Administration Reform Committee and I propose to accept a number of  recommendations of Justice Easwar Committee in this Budget.

          To reduce multiplicity of taxes, associated cascading and to reduce cost of collection, I propose to abolish 13 cesses, levied by various Ministries  Ministries  in which revenue collection is less than Rs.50 crore in a year.