The Budget 2012, contrary to many expectations, turned out to be a rather low profile one. No revolutionary measures were introduced except some of the already anticipated changes. Here's a look at significant features of Union Budget 2012:

Disinvestment Policy:
For FY 2012-13, Rs 30,000 crore to be raised through disinvestment.
Foreign Direct Investment: Efforts are on to arrive at a broad-based consensus to allow FDI in multi-brand retail upto 51%

Tax Reforms:

• Direct Tax Code  (DTC) Bill to be enacted at the earliest after expeditious examination of the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
• Drafting of model legislation for the Centre and State Goods Services Tax in concert with States is under progress.
• GST network to be set up as a National Information Utility and to become operational by August 2012
• Tax burden for individuals to come down: Income tax exemption limit raised from Rs.180,000 to Rs2,00,000; 10% tax for Rs.200,000 to Rs.500,000 Income; 20% for Rs.500,000 to Rs.10,00,000 and 30% beyond Rs.10,00,000; 
• Savings bank account interest up to Rs10,000 exempted from tax
• Senior citizens not having income from business proposed to be exempted from payment of advance tax
• Rajiv Gandhi Equity Saving Scheme to allow for income tax deduction of 50% to new retail investors (whose annual income is below Rs 10 lakh), who invest upto Rs 50,000 directly in equities. The scheme will have a lock-in period of 3 years

Infrastructure and Industrial Development:

• During 12th Five Year Plan period, investment in infrastructure to go up to Rs 50 lakh crore, half of which is expected from private sector.
• Tax free bonds of Rs 60,000 crore to be allowed for financing infrastructure projects

Attracting foreign funds: 
Efforts on to allow FDI in multi-brand retail and permitting foreign airlines invest in domestic players; External borrowings to the extent of $1 billion for aviation companies; Qualified Foreign Investors to get access to corporate bond market.

Indirect Taxes:

• Standard rate of excise duty to be raised from 10% to 12%, merit rate from 5% to 6% and the lower merit rate from 1% to 2% with few exemptions.
• Service Tax Rate raised to 12%
• Excise duty on large cars also proposed to be enhanced. 3. Indirect taxes estimated to result in net revenue gain of Rs.45,940 crore

Madam Speaker,
I rise to present the Union Budget for 2012-13.

1. For the Indian economy, this was a year of recovery interrupted. When one year ago, I rose to present the Budget, the challenges were many, but there was a sense that the world economy was on the mend. The Budget was presented in the first glimmer of hope. But reality turned out to be different. The sovereign debt crisis in the Euro zone intensified, political turmoil in Middle East injected widespread uncertainty, crude oil prices rose, an earthquake struck Japan and the overall gloom refused to lift.

2. While I believe that there should be no room for complacency, nor any excuse for what happens in one’s own country, we will be misled if we ignore the ground realities of the world. The global crisis has affected us. India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated to grow by 6.9 per cent in 2011-12, after having grown at the rate of 8.4 per cent in each of the two preceding years. Though we have been able to limit the adverse impact of this slowdown on our economy, this year’s performance has been disappointing. But it is also a fact that in any cross-country comparison, India still remains among the front runners in economic growth.