-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...
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The freebie nation-Sreelatha Menon
-The Business Standard The Union Budget shows the charitable instincts of the government continuing to overwhelm it - though some would call it part inefficiency and part helplessness. The exemptions given to citizens on the tax they ought to pay have been exceeding the Plan expenditure, and even the total fiscal deficit as it did in 2012-13. This has prompted criticism from the Left parties and activists, who view it as evidence...
More »Budget 2013: CPI(M) Slams Tax 'Concessions' to the Rich
-Outlook The CPI(M) today castigated the government for foregoing over Rs 5.73 lakh crore as tax revenues by granting tax concessions to the rich, saying the amount was Rs 53,000 crore more than the fiscal deficit. "The budget proposals will further enrich the rich and impoverish the poor," senior CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters while reacting to the 2013-14 Budget. Quoting data presented in the budget, he said the aggregated revenue foregone...
More »Budget 2013: UIDAI's plan spending doubled to Rs 2,620 cr in 2013-14
-PTI The Plan spending of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), responsible for issuing Aadhaar numbers to residents, has been almost doubled to Rs 2,620 crore in 2013-14 from the revised estimates in the current fiscal. The authority's revised estimates of Plan expenditure in the current fiscal stands at Rs 1,350 crore compared to the budget estimates of Rs 1,758 crore. The actual Plan expenditure of the authority was 1,187.53 crore in...
More »Ramesh Promises Corrective Measures on Poor Spending
-Outlook Rural Development Ministry could spend only Rs 55,000 crore out of the budget estimate of Rs 75,000 crore for its various flagship programmes in the current fiscal and Minister Jairam Ramesh says he owns responsibility for it. Despite the poor spending, Finance Minister P Chidambaram today allocated Rs 80,000 crore to the key social sector Ministry in this year's budget. Ramesh blamed "serious administrative weaknesses in the poorest states of India"-- Bihar,...
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