Union Budget 2012-13.

Union Budget is a comprehensive display of Government’s finances. In simple words, it is a report which contains revenue and expenditure of Government of India for one fiscal year. (1st April to 31st March.)

Fiscal Year 2011-12 was a year of recovery interrupted as declared by India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukharjee. This recovery was interrupted due to intensification of debt crisis in Euro Zone, political turmoil in Middle East, rise in crude oil price & earthquake in Japan. On this ground, India remains front runner in the case of economic growth on the world map.

Moving towards Union Budget format, it contains 3 main points:-1.Revenue.
                                                                                                 2. Expenditure.
                                                                                                 3. Fiscal Deficit.

It also includes GDP (Gross Domestic Product) service tax, Excise Duty & Tax exemption etc.

Here are some highlights of Union Budget 2012-13:-

GDP:-

GDP represents the total value of all goods and services produced over a specific time period. (Here, one calendar year)

• India’s GDP is estimated to grow 6.9 per cent in real terms in 2011-12.
• It is expected to be 7.6 per cent +/- 0.25 per cent in 2012-13.

Revenue:-

Revenue is calculated by multiplying the price at which goods or services are sold by the number of units or amount sold.

It includes Tax receipts, Interest rates & Disinvestment.

Tax receipts are estimated at 7,71,071 crore rupees in 2012-13.

Here are the Tax receipts numbers:-
Upto 2 lakhs - no tax
2-5 lakh - 10%
5-10 lakh - 20%
Above 10 lakh - 30%

Service tax rates raised from 10 per cent to 12 per cent to bring Rs. 18,660 crore. (Service tax - 10.3% - 12.36%)

Income Tax for the year 2012-13 is 1,95,786 crore rupees.

Excise duty rose from 10 to 12 per cent. (Excise duty - 10.3% - 12.36%)


In 2011-12, as against a target of Rs 40,000 crore, the Government will raise about Rs. 14,000 crore from disinvestment.
For 12-13, target of raising Rs.30,000 crore through disinvestment to decrease the Fiscal Deficit.


Expenditure:-

Expenditure means spending money in order to create future benefits.

It includes Interest Payments, subsidies, defense and salaries.

Total expenditure for 2012-13 is budgeted at Rs.14,90,925 crore.
Out of that Plan expenditure is Rs. 5,21,025 crore ( which is 18 per cent higher than 2011-12 budget)
Non-plan expenditure is Rs. 9,69,900 crore.

Interest payments are considered to be the payment of interest by any financial institutions over borrowings or loans. The estimated interest payments in this years budget is 3,19,759 crore rupees.

Government’s subsidy bill on food, petroleum and fertilizers is estimated at Rs. 1,79,554. Subsidy rate for the previous year was 2.5% of GDP. Government’s Endeavour to keep central subsidies under 2 per cent of GDP in 2012-13. It is expecting further cuts on subsidies up to 1.75% of GDP.

A provision of Rs. 1,93,407 crore has been made for defense services for 2012-13.
It includes Rs. 79,579 crore for capital expenditure.

Budget did not give brief amount dedicated to salaries but they provided estimation of pension which is 63,183 crore rupees for 2012-13.

.
Deficit:-

It includes Fiscal Deficit, Current account deficit & Trade Deficit.

The difference between total revenue and total expenditure is termed as Fiscal Deficit.

* Fiscal deficit seen at 5.9 percent of GDP in 2011-12
* Fiscal deficit seen at 5.1 percent of GDP in 2012-13

Current deficit occurs when country’s total import of goods and services is greater then country’s total export of goods and services. It is ideally estimated to be 3% maximum.


The current account deficit as a proportion of GDP for 11-12 is likely to be around 6.6% and it is 3.6% for year 2012-13.

Trade deficit is an economic measure of a negative balance of trade in which a country's imports exceeds its exports. A trade deficit represents an outflow of domestic currency to foreign markets.


It is 104 billion rupees and expected to rise up to 170 billion rupees.

This is a quick look towards Union Budget 2012-13 which is going to affect whole Country’s economy for the coming year.

Three is company...!

There is a saying in English which goes by, two's is company, three's a crowd. But, some unusual coincidences made a bunch of three companions a Company. These three musketeers are Vivek Mishra, Mark Alexander and Tanay Bhivandiwala.

They make usual things unusual and different. They may not be highly experienced, but age is on their side. They are the perfect young entrepreneurs which India is in search of. They initiated a travel company called ‘Glotrip’. Here is the story of these youngsters’ business funda, their intentions behind starting this venture and much more….

Firstly, while talking with Vivek, co-founder and Marketing Manager of Glotrip, we realize that the seed of any business lies in a person’s capacity to identify the need of any product or service. In 2010, Mark came up with the idea of Tour management while completing his BMS in Wilson College. Vivek Mishra who is doing M.S. in Mumbai University and Tanay Bhivandiwala, a student of New Law College, joined him. They understood the need to organise and manage an Industrial visit efficiently for colleges and thus their brand new business started taking its shape.

Glotrip is still a new baby on the block compared to other big travel companies. It is hardly two years old. Hence, we can not observe any drastic changes or up-downs about it. But, it is in the process of improving.

Though the target audience of Glotrip is varied, their main focus is on students. As every other business company has its motto, Glotrip’s motto is to make students explore the world. ‘‘We intend to offer knowledgeable and entertaining tours to the students,’’ Vivek says.

‘Keeping marginal fees’ for students is their main funda about money. Vivek says, “College students have a certain limit beyond which they can not afford to pay for an Industrial Visit. As we are also students, we know the margin of that amount. Hence, we design our offerings accordingly.” At such initial stage of business, instead of keeping profits at high level, their focus is to construct a concrete identity in the market.

Raising initial capital was the main challenge for them. But three of them raised their own money and started it. Building up new contacts and corporate rapport were challenges as well. ‘‘It was a struggling period which every businessman has to face,’’ Vivek talks about their initial period of business.

Vivek tells about students’ preferences about IV. Now a days, students suggest where they want to go for industrial visits and we offer it at affordable prices. 

Every business is affected by many surrounding policies and inflation. Glotrip is not an exception. Government Policies, service tax affects their business. Inflation and rising prices of petrol and diesel increase total expenditure of tours. Maintaining balance between this expenditure and fees is the real challenge for these young entrepreneurs.

Vivek, Mark and Tanay have started their business in very young age. This young age itself is going to beneficial for their travel company. Let’s hope that we will soon get some good news about prosperity of Glotrip.