The truth about the deficit is that it is designed to serve political objectives, not economic ones.
Jaitley is now a minister without portfolio in the Narendra Modi government.
The new government may enhance the Plan expenditure for 2014-15 by around Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) in the Budget next month, which would be about 2 per cent higher than what was provided in the previous fiscal budget.
Parties including the Congress, Left, the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party have written to the Election Commission and the President opposing the advancing of the budget presentation to February 1 before the polls.
While the April-February deficit is pegged at 5.3 per cent of GDP, the final print may be a tad lower due to revenue push and expenditure cuts seen in March, the last month of 2013-14 fiscal year, it said.
Employees of around 150 firms may lose out on PF benefits as their companies failed to get an exemption certificate from the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO)
The country's apex exporters body Federation of Indian Export Organisations said that support extended by the minister for research and development activities and reduction of duties on capital goods will help in increasing competitiveness of Indian products in the global market.
Pranab Mukherjee proposed the enhancement of the overall plan budget for higher education by Rs 2,000 crore over the Interim Budget estimates. He further announced the allocation of Rs 2,113 crore for IITs and NITs, which includes a provision of Rs 450 crore for new IITs and NITs. The finance minister also proposed to allocate Rs 827 crore for opening one central university in each uncovered state.
The Budget has increased the allocation for the Commonwealth Games from Rs 3,472 crore (Rs 34.72 billion) from Rs 2,112 crore (Rs 21.12 billion).
Around 40 per cent of the country is staring at drought-like conditions ahead of the monsoon as water levels have receded sharply.
High inflationary expectations may lead to higher interest rates by end-FY10.
The worst of recession could coincide with the run-up to the elections.
Consumer goods manufacturers, expecting to see a revival of demand from the nearly Rs 16,500 crore Pay Commission arrears for government employees, are likely to be disappointed.
The Interim Budget highlights the focus on aam aadmi in the development process. The year 2008-09 has seen substantial increase in outlays spanning across sectors.
A number of new IITs started functioning in 2008-09, the minister said, adding that two more IITs in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan will start functioning in 2009-10.
Presenting the Interim Budget in Lok Sabha, the minister said the enactment of the Act by the Centre and many states has 'bridged a critical gap in the public decision-making process and ushered in greater accountability of public servants.'
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday described as "well-balanced" the Vote-on-Account presented by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, saying it portrays a "realistic picture" of the economic situation of the country.
India Inc believes that given the current economic slowdown, it could not have been any better
23% increase for Highways: The allocation during the current year to the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) has been stepped up by 23 per cent over the 2008-09 (BE).
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said that government has taken a conscious and bold decision to enhance the Gross Budgetary Support for the Annual Plan 2009-10 by Rs.40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) over the Interim Budget for 2009-10.
Even if the same party returns to power, what is important to debate is that having introduced an entitlement, how challenging it is to reverse such decisions, says Mukesh Butani.
The Budget refers to the 'Annual Financial Statement', laid before both the Houses of Parliament.
Currently, the enforcement officers are making seizures of assets directly and indirectly connected to offenders, including jewelers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi in the Punjab National Bank fraud and Vijay Mallya in the Rs 9,000-crore IDBI loan case.
The interim Budget in May this year had extended the depreciation benefit on purchase of new commercial vehicles to September from March 2009. Industry executives said this should be extended as sales of large vehicles slumped 40 per cent in April and May this year. Sales of medium and heavy commercial vehicles had dipped 33 per cent in 2008-2009.
The new Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian believes that more than unemployment, it is the quality of employment which needs to be focused on. In an interview with Arup Roychoudhury and Indivjal Dhasmana, Subramanian said that controlling inflation was the Modi government's biggest achievement.
With an Interim Budget and an election victory behind him, and a full-year budget ahead, Mukherjee would presumably have lots on his mind, but understandably be coy of revealing much.
Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao said on Friday that another stimulus package could help the economy in the short-term but a sustainable recovery required the government to return to fiscal consolidation.
Ahead of the new government assuming office later this month, the finance ministry has begun the Budget-making exercise to enable the incoming finance minister to present the full-fledged Budget for 2009-10.
"Jobs must be protected even if it means some reduction in compensation at various levels," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said at International Labour Conference in New Delhi.
The extension of interest subsidy scheme by another six months for loans taken by exporters in labour-intensive sectors was the only fiscal stimulus measure announced in the Interim Budget for 2009-10.
Finance Secretary Arun Ramanathan said the government was closely watching the trickle-down effect of the first two stimulus packages and will respond to the evolving situation.
Pranab Mukherjee in the Interim Budget for 2009-10 announced that the government has given in-principle or final approval 50 infrastructure projects worth Rs 67,700 crore (Rs 677 billion).
Given the debilitating effects of the economic slowdown on various industry sectors and indeed on the nation's GDP growth, the government would have been well within its right to push through a populist budget under the garb of not letting the country's economy drift till such time as a new government is put in place after the general elections.
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has launched many new schemes to provide steady monetary assistance to weak and downtrodden people in the society.
The praise for peasants, most of whom are subsistence farmers, comes ahead of general elections due in a few months. The minister presented statistics to hard-sell the government's initiatives to prop up the agriculture sector and improve the conditions of roughly about 60 per cent of the country's population depending upon it.
India's foreign direct investment inflow between April and November 2008 was $23.3 billion, a growth of 45 per cent compared with that during the same period in 2007, said union Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is holding additional charge of the finance portfolio while presenting the Interim Budget for 2009-10 on Monday in parliament.
The government has pegged fiscal deficit at 5.5 per cent of gross domestic product for the next financial year, against the revised figure of 6 per cent in the current financial year. The fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal was 2.5 per cent. However, fiscal measures initiated in the wake of the global economic downturn and reduction in revenue collection have impacted resource mobilisation resulting in widening of deficit.
Railway Minister Lalu Prasad on Friday left freight rates unchanged in his interim budget to keep traffic from shifting to road transport that has become cheaper following cut in diesel prices.
A fiscal deficit of 6.8 per cent of GDP, up from 5.5 per cent postulated in February's Interim Budget, means an additional stimulus of nearly Rs 80,000 crore (Rs 800 billion).
The government on Monday allocated an increased sum of Rs 3073 crore for the Sports Ministry in the Union budget for fiscal 2009-10, and also proposed to sanction Rs 3472 crore for next year's Commonwealth Games. The budget for the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has been increased by Rs 1480 crore than what was proposed in the interim budget presented before the Lok Sabha elections.
