India Unveils Annual Budget

The Union Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram arrives at
 Parliament House along with the Ministers of State for Finance,
Namo Narain Meena and S.S. Palanimanickam to present the
General Budget 2013-14, in New Delhi on
February 28, 2013. Photo © PIB

 NEW DELHI, India   (NNN-Xinhua) -- India's ruling Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government Thursday unveiled its budget for the fiscal 2013 to 2014, outlining the spending for one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presented in Parliament the annual budget, saying that the country has been facing a number of challenges to return to its potential growth rate of 8 percent at a time when "there is a slow growth rate worldwide".

Though the finance minister did not tinker with the income tax slabs for the middle-class, he outlined plans to tax the "super- rich" and the corporate sector in his budget amid rising pressure to reduce the fiscal deficit.

Chidambaram also focused on rural India while presenting his budget by hiking outlays for health, water and sanitation, tribals and rural development, keeping in view the general elections slated for next year. He also announced a new bank only for women, the first of its kind in India.

The finance minister announced a 16 percent rise in public spending, saying he has "retrieved some economic space" thanks to recent austerity measures, including slashing subsidies. He also said that the government intended to cut India's public deficit to 4.6 percent of the GDP.

"Restoring India's potential growth remains a challenge but there is no room for gloom and pessimism. Only China and Indonesia are growing faster than India and achieving high growth is not beyond India's capacity. We have done it and we will do it again," he said.

The minister added: "India at the present juncture does not have the choice of welcoming and spurning foreign investment. We need to welcome foreign investment."

Experts say that this is the UPA's last budget before the general elections and the government tried to balance it by making it a "populist" as well as a "pragmatic" one. --NNN-XINHUA