Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, he said he could not announce 'many radical" measures in the Interim Budget presented earlier this week because of constitutional constraints. Fiscal correction and monetary changes should go side by side so that impact on the economy is maximum, he said adding, his ministry was in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India for future course of action.
Jyoti Basu, the 95-year-old communist, has lost touch with many of his comrades. But this morning the former chief minister of West Bengal did not forget to call his favourite Congressman to say, "Happy Birthday!"
Amid ballooning fiscal deficit, the government on Tuesday categorically said that it has 'no intention' to monetise its debt, which implies that it will not directly borrow from the Reserve Bank of India. As fiscal deficit is projected to be at 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product this fiscal and the government has pegged its market borrowings at around Rs 4 lakh crore (Rs 4 trillion) for 2009-10.
The suspense over the fate of embattled Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan continued on Sunday night with a high-level Congress committee tasked to give a report on the housing scam in Mumbai saying it would need 'more time' to do its job. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is heading the two-member committee, met fellow panel member Defence Minister A K Antony on Sunday night shortly after his arrival from Kolkata.
As China frowned on Dalai Lama's visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, India on Monday said border differences between the two countries could be resolved through dialogue.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented the Union Budget for 2012-13 on Friday.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had a brief meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on salient features of the Budget.
Amid China's claims over parts of Arunachal Pradesh, India on Sunday said the differences between New Delhi and Beijing over border issues can be resolved through dialogue. "It is true that we have differences with China over the border. But we have agreed to resolve them through dialogue," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters after the G-20 meeting in Scotland. Both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao had agreed to maintain peace.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said the government has taken note of the Supreme Court observations and action will be taken against Pune-based stud farm owner Hasan Ali Khan who is facing charges of stashing huge amounts of money in tax havens.
"The bank strike is expected to be called off today. I am being told that talks are on between the bank associations and worker unions," he said replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour.
Attributing the fall in stock markets in the past few days to selling by FIIs, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asserted on Wednesday that the fundamentals are strong and the economy will clock 8.5 per cent growth in the current financial year.
The results of the 10 assembly by-elections in West Bengal once again proved that the people wanted the Trinamool Congress-Congress alliance and the ruling Left Front was losing popularity, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Kolkata on Wednesday.
The government on Saturday said it will be premature to make a judgment on whether corporate lobbyist Niira Radia was a spy or not, until the probe is completed in the matter.
Sitharaman, India's first full-time woman Finance Minister, broke away from the colonial tradition of carrying a Budget briefcase in July 2019, opting instead for a traditional 'bahi-khata', to carry the Union Budget papers.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said he has noted reports about reservations Swiss banks have in sharing client details with India, but did not say what course of action the government would take.
The fiscal deficit, which is the difference between total expenditure and revenue, as percentage of GDP will come down from 6.9 per cent in the revised estimates for the current fiscal, he said unveiling the 2010-11 Budget in the Lok Sabha.
The meet assumes significance as the Mumbai unit of the I-T department is handling probe into high-value cases of tax evasion including the Indian Premier League case, probe into the investments of Pune-based stud farm owner Hassan Ali Khan and tax related cases of the top cricketing body of the country -- Board of Control for Cricket in India.
"No, she will not make me the PM," was Dr Pranab Mukherjee's cryptic response in a reference to Sonia Gandhi when he was asked by his daughter Sharmistha Mukherjee about his chances of becoming the prime minister in 2004.
Protesting the 'erroneous' stand, Prasenjit Bose, former convenor of the research unit of CPI-M, decided to send his resignation letter to the CPI-M leadership, and was later expelled from the party. We present the letter, where he elaborates his stand, which was first published in Pragati, on July 22.
The revised draft DTC, released earlier this month, has dropped the contentious issues of the first discussion paper.
Even as India's annual inflation rate touched 10.16 per cent in May, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday ruled out the possibility of interest rates rising in the short term. He said he expected inflation to be on the higher side till the middle of July.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Sonia's political secretary Ahmed Patel were also present.
The DMK on Monday put on hold the resignations of its six ministers from the UPA Government in a dramatic new turn, with the party and Congress engaged in hectic negotiations to sort out their seat-sharing problems in Tamil Nadu. Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee telephoned DMK chief M Karunanidhi twice, and urged him not to pull out his ministers from the cabinet during the Budget Session, and sought a day's time to resolve problems.
The finance minister also says that India requires an investment of $850 billion to $1 trillion in the next 5-7 years.
The meeting, on the sidelines of the Annual Spring session of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, will happen within a couple days of about a dozen US industry associations writing to the US Treasury Secretary to take up the controversial move by India to amend the Income Tax Act with retrospective effect.
In the first objection from within Congress, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Sunday said he is not in favour of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh appearing before the Public Accounts Committee on the 2G spectrum issue as he was accountable to the Lok Sabha and "not to any committee".
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has arrived in New York for a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the 2G spectrum issue in the wake of a Finance Ministry note involving P Chidambaram.
A committee has been formed and the price situation was being reviewed, the finance minister added.
'The inflow of FII or FDI has not distorted the market sentiments and therefore there is no question of putting any curbs.'
'Modi had not discussed demonetization with me prior to his announcement on 8 November 2016. 'I learnt of it along with the rest of the country. 'I was not surprised when he did not discuss the issue with me prior to making the public announcement. 'It fitted in with his style of making dramatic announcements.' A fascinating excerpt from Pranab Mukherjee's The Presidential Years: 2012-2017.
The first anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks on Thursday saw Leader of the Opposition L K Advani expressing concern over the relief to the victims and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee hitting back, accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party of exploiting the 26/11 terror attacks for political gains
Crossing Rs 49, the Indian currency is moving fast towards the Rs 50-to-a-dollar mark.
VDS schemes in the past offered amnesty to people declaring black money and paying tax. This policy has been criticised as it amounted to penalising honest tax payers by asking them to pay tax at higher rates.
In a bid to end the impasse inParliament, the government reached out to the Bharatiya Janata Party saying it was ready for a discussion on 2-G spectrum issue and a Supreme Court-monitored CBI probe but rejected the demand for a JPC, which failed to cut ice with the main opposition.
Bharti Airtel Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal, Vodafone Plc CEO Vittorio Colao, Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas and Idea Cellular Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on Wednesday met ministers and senior government officials to present the industry's concerns over telecom regulator Trai's proposals on the auction of spectrum.
In the Budget 2012-13, the government had pegged 2012-13 gross domestic product growth at 7.6 per cent (plus, minus 0.25 per cent).
Who will take over the tasks of the prime minister and oversee the functioning of the government during the third week of September? This is the question that is being discussed in the corridors of power in Delhi, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be in the United States from September 21 to September 28 to attend the United Nations General Assembly session. United Progressive Alliance trouble-shooter and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will also be away, in Washington.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday ruled out a Joint P Parliamentary Committee investigation into alleged irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation, but appealed to the Opposition to let Parliament function smoothly.
Food inflation rose to 18.32 per cent for the week ended December 25, because of rise in prices of food items like onion, milk and meat.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also asserted there's been no pressure by the United States for India to enact financial sector reforms, particularly in the banking and insurance sectors, on the eve of President Obama's visit.