Monday, February 16, 2009

Highlights of Indian interim Budget

Following are the highlights of the Indian interim budget presented by Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
* Plan expenditure for 2009-10 pegged at IRs.952,231 crore (IRs.9.52 trillion)
* Budgetary support for 2009-10 at IRs.2,85,149 crore (IRs.2.85 trillion), 17.16 percent
* Additional plan expenditure between 0.5 percent to 1 percent of GDP may be considered
* Fiscal deficit forecast 5.5 percent of GDP for 2009-10
* Revenue deficit forecast 4 percent of GDP for 2009-10
* Subsidy for food, fertiliser and petroleum at IRs.95,579 crore
* Defence allocation increased to IRs.141,703 crore (IRs.1.417 trillion)
* Urban renewal spending pegged at IRs.11,842 crore (IRs.118.42 billion)
* Rural sanitation spending at IRs.1,200 crore (IRs.12 billion)
* National rural health mission spending at IRs.12,070 crore (IRs.120.7 billion)
* Rural infrastructure development outlay at IRs.14,000 crore (IRs.140 billion)
* Midday meal scheme spending at IRs.8,000 crore (IRs.80 billion)
* India remains second-fastest growing economy in the world
* Economy expected to grow 7.1 percent this fiscal
* Need to make economic growth inclusive
* Government spent IRs.70,000 crore (IRs.700 billion) on 37 infrastructure projects in 2008-09 * Under public-private partnership (PPP), 54 central infrastructure projects approved
* Total expenditure of PPP projects estimated at IRs.67,700 crore (IRs.677 billion)
* India Infrastructure Finance Company to raise IRs.10,000 crore (IRs.100 billion) by end-March
* India has weathered inflation crisis, but no room for complacency
* Country's agriculture outlook is encouraging
* Focussed attention to agriculture
* Plan allocation for farm sector hiked 300 percent in past five years
* Three-fold increase in short-term agriculture credit to IRs.250,000 crore (IRs.2.5 trillion)
* Farm debt worth IRs.65,300 crore (IRs 653 billion) waived
* Government will continue to provide additional subsidy to farmers
* Corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund hiked to IRs.14,000 crore (IRs.140 billion) from IRs.5,500 crore (IRs.55 billion)
* Outlay for higher education hiked 900 percent for 11th Five Year Plan
* Country's social security net will be strengthened
* New scheme unveiled for young widows in the age group of 18-40
* New disability pension scheme introduced for age group of 18-40
* 15 point programme for welfare of minorities set up
* Record foreign direct investment of $32.4 billion attracted
* Global economic situation not encouraging
* Extraordinary situation merits extraordinary measures
* Need to consider additional fiscal measures in regular budget
* Financial sector reforms need to be accelerated
* Non-performing assets (NPAs) of public sector banks have declined
* State-run banks see NPAs drop from 7.8 percent to 2.3 percent in four years
* Number of loss-making state-run units down from 73 to 58
* Profit-making units up from 143 units to 158 units
* In past three years, India grew by average of over 9 percent
* Per capita income expanded by 4.7 percent per annum
* Fiscal deficit was brought down from 4.5 percent to 2.7 percent
* Revenue deficit was cut from 3.6 percent to 1.1 percent
* Exports increased 26.4 percent per annum
* Foreign trade increased from 27.3 percent to 35.5 percent
* Tax to gross domestic product ratio expanded by 9.2 to 12.5 percent
* Agriculture grew by 3.7 percent per annum
* Revised estimates for 2009-09 peg plan expenditure at IRs.282,957 crore (IRs.2.83 trillion)
* Central plan increased for host of areas like telecom, rural development
* Tax collections expected to fall to IRs.627,949 crore (IRs.6.28 trillion)
* Revised revenue deficit is 4.4 percent of GDP against one percent
* Revised fiscal deficit at 6 percent of GDP against 2.5 percent

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