Highlights of Union Budget 2011-12 (Part-III)

NEW DELHI - Union Finance Minister Pranab Minister on Monday presented the Union Budget 2011-12 in the Parliament.

Highlights of Union Budget 2011-12 are as follows:

Removal of supply bottlenecks in food sector in focus in 2011-12

Interest subvention on housing loans eligibility relaxed

Extension of NBS to cover urea under consideration

Rs 100 crore equity funds for microfinance companies

Private investment in Agro Processing should increase

Banks have been asked to increase lending to farmers

Propose to provide Rs 6000 crore for PSU bank recapitalization

Rs 6,000 crore to be given to public sector banks to maintain capital-to-risk assets ratio norms

Government plans to create a Women Self Help Group development fund with a corpus of Rs 500 crore

Allocation under Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to be raised from Rs 6755 crore in the current year to Rs 7860 crore

Rs 300 crore provided to promote pulses cultivation in rain-fed areas

Government proposes to promote organic farming methods to enable farmers get best from their land

Government to boost infra development proposes tax-free bonds of 300 billion rupees

Three percent interest subsidy to farmers in 2011-12

Existing interest subvention scheme on short term farm loans at seven per cent interest to continue (ANI)