26th February 2006
The Indian Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the Union budget for 2010-11 in the Lok Sabha today after the Cabinet approval of the document. the following are some of the key highlights of his budget speech.
* The Indian economy was facing grave uncertainty. Growth had started decelerating when the interim and full budget for 2009-10 were presented.
* At home there was added uncertainty because of subnormal southwest monsoon.
* Yet, the economy now in a far better position than it was eight years ago.
* India weathered the economic crisis well and emerged from the global slowdown faster than any other country.
* First challenge before the government is to quickly revert to high GDP growth path of 9%.
* Expects 10% economic growth in the near future.
* Second challenge is to harness economic growth to make it more inclusive and consolidate gains.
* Third challenge is to overcome weakness in government's public delivery mechanism; a long way to go in this.
* Impressive recovery in the past few months. Can witness faster recovery in the coming months.
* Food security has been strengthened.
* But bottleneck of the public delivery mechanism can hold us back.
* Fiscal year 2009-10 was challenging for the economy.
* Focus shifted to non-governmental actors and an enabling government. Government now concentrates on supporting and delivering services to the poorer sections.
* Economy stabilised in the first quarter of 2009 itself.
* 18.5% manufacturing growth in December was the highest in two decades.
* Figures for merchandise exports for January encouraging after turnaround in November and December last year.
* Double digit food inflation last year due to bad monsoon and drought-like conditions.
* Government conscious of the price rise and taking steps to tackle it.
* Erratic monsoon and drought-like conditions forced supply-side bottleneck that fuelled inflation.
* Need to review stimulus imparted to economy last year to overcome the recession.
* Need to ensure that the demand-supply imbalance is managed.
* Need to make growth more broad-based.
* Need to review public spending and mobilise resources.
* Status paper on public debt within six months.
* Government hopes to implement direct tax code from April 2011.
* Earnest endeavour to implement general sales tax in April 2011.
* Government will raise Rs25,000 crore from divestment of its stake in state-owned firms.
* Kirit Parekh report on fuel price deregulation will be taken up by petroleum minister Murli Deora in due course.
* Nutrient-based fertiliser subsidy scheme to come into force from April 1 this year.
* Nutrient-based fertiliser subsidy will reduce volatility of subsidy and also reduce it.
* Market capitalisation of five public-sector undertakings listed since October increased by 3.5 times.
* FDI inflows steady during the year. Government has taken series of steps to simplify FDI regime. Intends to make FDI policy user friendly by compling all guidelines into one document.
* Government has decided to set up apex-level Financial Stability and Development Council.
* RBI considering issuing banking licences to private companies. Non-banking finance companies will also be considered if they meet the criteria.
* Government to provide Rs16,500 crore to public-sector banks to maintain tier-I capital.
* Government to continue interest subvention of 2% for one more year for exports covering handicrafts, carpets, handlooms and small and medium enterprises.
* Government to provide Rs300 crore to organise 60,000 pulse and oilseed villages and provide integrated intervention of watershed and related programmes.
* Rs200 crore provided for climate-resilient agriculture initiative.
* Government committed to ensuring continued growth of special economic zones.
* Need to take firm view on opening |
