Highlights Of Financial Budget Of 2013/14

NEW DELHI: India must make tough spending choices,on Thursday finance minister P Chidambaram said, even as he revealed a bigger-than-expected outlay for the coming fiscal year in one of the most highly anticipated Indian budgets of current years.

Highlights of the Budget:

FISCAL DEFICIT:

* Faced with huge fiscal deficit, India had no choice but to rationalize expenditure.

GROWTH:

* India faces challenge of getting back to its potential growth rate of 8 pct

* India must unhesitatingly embrace growth as highest goal

SPENDING:

* Total budget expenditure seen at 16.65 trillion rupees in 2013/14

* India's 2013/14 plan expenditure seen at 5.55 trillion rupees

* Revised estimate for total expenditure is 14.3 trillion rupees in 2012/13, which is 96 pct of      budget estimate

* Set aside 100 billion rupees towards spending on food subsidies in 2013/14

CURRENT ACCOUNT poverty:

* India's greater worry is the current account poverty will need more than $75 billion this   year and next year to fund poverty

INFLATION:

* Food inflation is worrying, will take all steps to augment supply side

CORPORATE SECTOR AND MARKETS:

* Plans to issue inflation-indexed bonds

* Proposes capital allowance of 15 pct to companies on investments of more than 1 billion    rupees

* Foreign institutional investors can use investments in corp, govt bonds as collateral to meet   margin requirements

* To implement quickly recommendations of financial sector legislative reforms commission

* Stock exchange regulator will simplify know-your-customer norms for foreign portfolio   investors

POWER AND ENERGY SECTOR:

* Proposes zero customs duty for electrical plants and machinery

* Proposes to move to revenue-sharing from profit-sharing policy in oil and gas sector

BANKING:

* To provide 140 billion rupees capital infusion in state-run banks in 2013/14

* To allocate 10 billion rupees for India's first women's bank

AGRICULTURE:

* To allocate 801.94 billion rupees to rural development in 2013/14

* Plan to allocate 270.49 billion rupees for agriculture in 2013/14

FINANCE MINISTER P Chidambaram COMMENTS* "Faced with a huge fiscal deficit, I have no choice but to rationalize expenditure. We took a dose of bitter medicine. It seems to be working."

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