In a mix of sops and imposts, the General Budget on Friday proposed a marginal raise in income tax exemption limit of Rs 20,000 but hiked service tax and standard excise duty by 2 per cent across the board to net an additional Rs 41,440 crore a year.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday announced Rs 1,00,000 crore increase in the agriculture credit target to Rs 5,75,000 for the next fiscal and raised the outlay for farm sector by about Rs 3,000 crore.

The efforts of the government to revive the Department of Posts (DoP) seems to be bearing fruits as its deficit is likely to come down by over 16 percent to Rs 5,309.6 crore in 2011-12, the Economic Survey 2011-12 said on Thursday.

The cash-strapped railways is understood to have got an approval of Rs 25,000 crore as gross budgetary support (GBS) from Finance Ministry for the fiscal 2012-13.

Luxury cars will become more expensive by up to Rs 3 lakh as disappointed automakers such as Mercedes Benz and Audi deciding to pass on increased duties imposed in the Budget on Friday to consumers.

A majority of employees surveyed expect Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to increase the income tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh in the upcoming Budget, in line with rising inflation, Assocham has said.

In order to provide the much needed relief to people, a Parliamentary panel scrutinizing the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill has suggested raising the income tax exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh and also hiking deduction on savings to Rs 2.5 lakh.

Industry body CII has urged the government to raise service tax exemption limit for small units to Rs 25 lakh, from existing Rs 10 lakh, to maintain the growth momentum of the sector.

A Parliamentary panel will meet on Friday to discuss the report on the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill, understood to have favoured raising I-T exemption limit to Rs 3 lakh.

Salaried employees earning up to Rs 5 lakh a year will not be required to file income tax returns from this year, says a Finance Ministry notification.