Union Budget 2010: Finance Minister revises tax slabs

The finance minister proposed the following slabs for individual tax payers: There will be no tax for income upto Rs 1.6 lakh. The earlier slab was 1.6 - 3 Lakh  For income between 1.6 lakh - 5 lakh, the tax liability will be 10%. The older slab was 3-5 lakh.  For income between 5 lakh - 8 lakh, the tax liability will be 20%. The earlier slab was 5 lakh.  Individuals with income of above 8 lakh will have tax liability of 30%.  Additional investment of 20K in infra bonds over and above Rs 1 lakh in 80C  "The proposal to reduce the tax slab will benefit 60 per cent of all tax payers," he said and added that he wished to hike the minimum alternate tax (MAT) to 18 per cent of book profits from the present 15 per cent. Mukherjee said 46 per cent of the plan allocation will be set aside for infrastructure, while hiking the outlays for rural and urban development, as also for education and healthcare. He also promised to implement the direct tax code from April next year, assured a simplified foreign investment policy soon. At the same time, he budgeted a lower fiscal deficit of 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product for the next fiscal, against the budget estimates of 6.8 per cent for this fiscal, and promised to lower it further to 4.8 per cent and 4.1 per cent over the next two years. The finance minister said three challenges he had listed last year remained today -- those of quickly reverting to a high growth path of 9 per cent and cross over to double-digit expansion; making growth more inclusive and developing infrastructure; and strengthening food security. "We hope to breach the 10 per cent growth mark in not too distant future," he said, adding that the government will also review the fiscal stimuli to make the country's growth more broad based. He also said Rs 35,000 crore ($7 billion) was raised by the government by way of divesting stake in public sector enterprises and that more will be accrue to the exchequer during the upcoming fiscal. The minister also promised more banking licenses for the private sector. Mukherjee said in 2009, when he presented the interim budget in February and the regular budget in July, the Indian economy was facing grave uncertainties, the economy had slowed down and business sentiment was low. This year, however, the budget has come against the backdrop of the Economic Survey for 2009-10, saying India's growth can go up to double digit levels in four years, with the country emerging as the fastest growing economy in the world. The market reaction, as the finance minister read his speech was positive, with the sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) ruling at 16,360.90 points, against the previous day's close at 16,254.2 points, with a gain of 106.7 points, or 0.65 per cent. Those in the packed house presided over by Speaker Meira Kumar, included Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj. This was Mukherjee's fourth budget of his career as finance minister and the second for the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in its second straight term after being voted back to office in May last year. Although the budget speech also contained some policy pronouncements and other steps directed at reforms, it is basically an annual statement of accounts for the upcoming fiscal in terms of receipts and expenditure, along with direct and indirect tax proposals. The budget was presented after a quick meeting of the federal cabinet inside the parliament house presided over by the prime minister for a customary approval for the proposals.

Seven P's of Marketing

Marketing is an important process in the promotion or sales of products and services. It is necessary that you understand the mix and its importance before you can create effective strategies if you know what you are offering to the market. This article will help you understand the important aspects of marketing such as the four P's, which are Product, Price, Placement and Promotion.

Modern day marketing requires additional three P's because they are important in the total mix. They are necessary to complete the strategy of products and services.

To help you understands how the seven P's work together, read on below.

The basic Four P's of Marketing

Product:

This is the most important thing in the mix, the physical product or the service that the entity is offering for sale to the public. You will need to market this to the customers by telling them the unique features and benefits the product has to offer.

Price:

This is the price or amount that the customer needs to giveaway in exchange of the product or service you are offering. Marketing strategy will need to ensure that people will get the perceived value as greater than the price they will need to giveaway.

Placement:

Placement or distribution, you will need to spell out where the product or service is available. This may either be online or offline, you will need to inform the public where the products may be available.

Promotion:

You will need to promote the product or service whether online of offline. Online marketing makes it cheaper to conduct promotions and reach as many people as possible.

The next three P's

People:

In order for any marketing activity to be effective, to will need to train and motivate the people to do their job. The people that delivers the product or service and those that come in between the customer and the manufacturer needs to know their job for the strategy to work. People may also refer to the customers who will need to buy your products, they are very important to be considered in the development of your marketing strategy.

Process:

Customer satisfaction is one of the most important roles of marketing. If you can follow the process of delivering high quality service or products to the customers, your marketing efforts will never be wasted.

Physical evidence:

Online, it is difficult for the customer to know how the product is going to benefit them. Thus, you will need to create an element by which the customer will be able to feel, taste and smell the product or experience the service. You can do reports and articles that will excite the customers about the product and the service.

Now, that you know the importance of the different aspects of marketing, you can now create a strategy that will incorporate them and thus improve your delivery of the message the product manufacturer needs to disseminate.