The government plans to cut its subsidy bill to under 2% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012-13, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his budget speech on Friday. High crude oil prices and burgeoning fertilizer subsidies, primarily on account of imported non-urea fertilizers, have meant India’s subsidy bill has zoomed to Rs2.16 trillion, or 2.5% of the GDP. Mukherjee has set an ambitious target to reduce this to under 1.75%...
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Pranab banks on indirect tax hike-Ashok Dasgupta
Token relief to individual taxpayers will cost the exchequer Rs. 4,500 crore In a “pragmatic and domestic growth-oriented” budgetary exercise aimed at shoring up investor confidence and investment, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday sought to tap indirect taxes, especially service tax, to rake in an additional Rs. 45,940 crore into his kitty. Presenting the budget for 2012-13 in Parliament, Mr. Mukherjee provided a token relief to individual taxpayers that will cost...
More »Economic Survey: Rural job freeze plan leaves Jairam fuming
-The Economic Times Could the Centre freeze the job guarantee scheme during peak agriculture season? The controversial demand from the agriculture ministry found an echo in the Economic Survey released on Thursday, but was quickly dismissed by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. While lauding the flagship scheme, the survey listed a few other measures as the way forward. "While the overall performance of MGNREGS has been good, there is scope for improvements...
More »Why this will be a reform budget-Surjit S Bhalla
Most of us don’t even get a single shot at making history — Manmohan Singh has a second chance The fiscal deficit is an outcome, not a policy. It is the net resolution of the policies pertaining to taxes and expenditure. It is worth analysing separately the two components of the deficit. The table reports the results of relating the tax and expenditure share of GDP to per capita income for...
More »Food bill to cover just 66% of India's hungry by Subodh Varma
With 230 million people under-nourished, the country awaits some comprehensive policy intervention from the government to tackle this haunting crisis. One of the most logical measures would be to provide a fixed amount of foodgrain to all citizens. But wouldn't the costs be enormous, ask sceptics? The Center for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA), a Delhi-based think tank, crunched all the numbers and came up with the answer. It would take...
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