Highlights of Finance Minister P Chidambaram's Vote on Account or Interim Budget speech.
FM inaugurated his Interim Budger as always with glorious words from Tamil sage Thiruvalluvar which spoke of "not the spear but sceptre swayed with equity alone gives the ruler victory".
Finance minister P Chidambaram on Monday "neither populism nor individualism" is an alternative way of governance and expressed confidence that people will entrust responsibility to a "hand" that works for equity.
MyMuneemji presents below quick look at key highlights with insights from the Vote on Account:
12.10: FM hopes to peg revenue deficit at 3.3% and fiscal deficit target at 4.1% next year.
12.00: No change in direct taxes.Excise duty cuts on mobile handsets, consumer durables, capital goods. Excise duty cut for large and mid-segment cars (20% cut), small cars and two wheelers (12% to 8% ), SUVs (24% from 30%).
11.58: Students get major relief. Moratorium on education loan interest taken prior to 2009 till 2014. - Does this mean more money for foreign schools setting up operations in India more than students?
11.55: Urban Housing Fund at get Rs 2,000 cr
Rural housing fund get Rs 6,000 cr
Minority affairs to get Rs 3,711 cr
11.53: Expenditure kept at Rs 5.55 lakh crore (same as last year)
11.52: PSU Banks get a boost by fresh capital infusion Rs.11,200 Cr - Is this an NPA funding?
11.52: Rs 8 lakh cr allocated for rural credit - Continuous favor goes for Farm lending - Hope the next session doesn't propose a waiver of these credits!!
11.51: Defense Allocation to Rs 2.24,000 crore, up 10%. - We Startups need to come up with some ideas around defence needs now!!
11.49: Food, Fuel and Fertilizer subsidy at 2.46 Lakh crore. Non-plan expenditure at Rs 1.15 lakh crore. - again farmers favored - is this because this the vote bank?
11.48: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare gets Rs. 33,725 cr - Good for society - Huge opportunity in heath care
11.45: Fresh power capacity, rural roads, highways added in last 3 months. 50000 MW of thermal and hydro power plants under construction - good infrastructure boost - No power cuts!!
11.42: Government committed to Aadhaar. Even critics will realise it is a tool of empowerment. 54 lakh transactions completed under direct benefit transfer. - Great Governance tool!!
11.34: Last two quarters of 2013-14 to grow at atleast 5.2%. Rupee doing better than other emerging market currencies. However, stagnation in manufacturing sector a worry.
11.29: Exports to grow to $326 bn; up 6.4%. Investment rate at 34.8%; saving rate at 30.1%. $15 bn added to foreign reserves this fiscal. Cabinet cleared 296 projects. GDP to be 4.9%.
11.24: Key concerns of last fiscal: fiscal consolidation and inflation. 2013-2014's fiscal deficit managed at 4.6% of GDP. Food inflation has declined but still a worry. Analysts are expecting PC to report a fiscal deficit of around 4.7 per cent of GDP
11.22: World economy has slowdown in last few years. India affected by global economy downturn but doing better than other emerging economies.
