Pranab's tax breaks to make housing, air travel cheaper

Your air travel may have got a tad cheaper. The house you were saving up to buy may not cost as much as you expected. Anti-cancer and anti-AIDS drugs, scented supari and medical equipment will also cost less than before. HT reports. Basket of goodies

Your air travel may have got a tad cheaper. The house you were saving up to buy may not cost as much as you expected. Anti-cancer and anti-AIDS drugs, scented supari and medical equipment will also cost less than before.

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Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday anno-unced a host of fiscal measures offering tax breaks for houses for urban poor, slum redevelopment, new hospitals and vocational training institutes.

He also said the service tax on domestic air travel will be limited to Rs 100 per ticket, while for international travel it would Rs 500.

"A priority of the government is to make India slum free," Mukherjee said while replying to the debate on Finance Bill 2010 in the Lok Sabha.

He also announced a Rs 363-crore debt-relief package for coffee farmers, as well as customs and excise duty cuts.

The duty concessions will cost the exchequer Rs 300-400 crore a year.

The minister, however, did not concede the Opposition's demand of rolling back duty hikes on petrol, diesel and fertilisers.