-The Times of India The Manmohan Singh government's mission in a pre-election year seems cut out: To check and roll back retail food inflation that rose from 4% in January last year to 13% in December, a trend that could blight its 2014 poll ratings. With food prices accounting for half of overall inflation, this group stayed above 10% most of last year, higher than the overall consumer price index figure of...
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An opportunity missed-CP Chandrasekhar
-The Hindu “The purpose of a Budget – and the job of a Finance Minister,” P. Chidambaram declared in his speech, “is to create the economic space and find the resources to achieve the socio economic objectives.” Now that the presentation of and the spate of initial responses to the budget are behind us, it may be appropriate to ask how far the Minister went in accomplishing his self-defined task. Mr. Chidambaram...
More »Hope trumps realism-Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
-The Asian Age Sonia Gandhi’s economic and political ideology may have apparently triumphed over that of Manmohan Singh. The neo-liberal finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram may be conveying an impression that he’s turned socialist with a vengeance by increasing taxes on the rich in the run-up to the 16th general elections. But the truth is that Mr Chidambaram has made certain assumptions about subsidies, inflation and the expected growth of gross domestic product...
More »Union Budget 2013: Food Bill a promise of the UPA government, says Chidambaram
-NDTV Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has earmarked Rs. 10,000 crore as incremental cost to implement the Food Security Bill, which he described as a promise of the UPA government. A centrepiece of the ruling government's campaign in 2009, the Bill was cleared last month by a parliamentary committee. The Bill says 75 per cent of the rural population and 50 per cent of the poor in urban India - about 800 million people...
More »Budget 2013: Super rich to pay more but no changes in income tax rates or slabs
-CNN-IBN Finance Minister P Chidambaram plans to get more income for the government by taxing the super-rich and the corporate sector even though he left untouched income tax rates and slabs. Chidamabaram allowed some relief for those who earn between Rs 2-5 lakh per year by announcing that they would be granted a tax credit of Rs 2000 and left most of the items untouched by not tinkering too much with...
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