The Planning Commission was better than the Niti Aayog as it used to take up the issues of the states with the ministries concerned.
The remarks came amid reports of mounting tension between the finance ministry and the RBI over the autonomy of monetary policy makers.
General Budget is a terminology earlier used to differentiate between the Union Budget with the Railway Budget. Full-fledged budgets are titled "Union Budget", while interim Budgets are titled just that.
The FM has been making efforts to make the taxation laws simpler.
Every option before the finance minister comes with a price tag, observes T N Ninan.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said the country must have a basic tax structure that is broad-based and oriented to low tax rates.
Jaitley said inflation has been under control for long and is likely to remain so on the back of good monsoon and unlikely spike in oil prices.
Stating that India's consolidated deficit is the highest among the G20 nations, Gopinath added it is important for India to undertake reforms.
Stating that he had consistently held Singh in high respect, he expected the same from him.
'Whoever whispered in his ears that go for demonetisation, misled him completely' and the PM lacked the sagacity to know that it would not work, Yashwant Sinha tells Archis Mohan.
The surge in export, domestic demand and public spending in infrastructure projects might revive private investment during 2017-18.
Ahead of India's annual budget presentation next week, IMF's chief economist Gita Gopinath has favoured the extension of the pandemic support measures, thrust on investment in infrastructure and expanding health sectors programmes like Ayushman Bharat, and a very credible divestment path for commercially viable companies. The Indian government has provided a lot of schemes for small and medium enterprises, most of which is in the form of liquidity support, Gopinath told PTI on Tuesday. "And you want to revisit it and see how effectively that is working and see whether additional support may need to be provided," she said while responding to a question on her recommendations to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, ahead of her presentation of the annual Union Budget on February 1. It would be a good time for banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to raise capital given the attractiveness of financing conditions at this point, she said.
'It is entering growth territory on a month-on-month basis.'
Jaitley said the government has created transparent environment.
Exporters on Thursday demanded fiscal incentives, tweaking in customs duties on certain products and credit at affordable rates in the forthcoming Budget to boost exports and create jobs. In a pre-budget virtual meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) said the depreciation of the rupee against the US dollar is affecting exports' competitiveness and the sector requires more support. "Creation of employment is the biggest challenge faced by the country...We would urge the government to provide fiscal support to units which provide additional employment in the export sector," the exporter's body said.
The Congress leader also targeted Modi over "hasty" implementation of the GST, and his pet bullet train project.
The Finance Minister impressed upon the need to attract more investments for the manufacturing sector.
A K Bhattacharya lists three reasons why Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will most likely present a full Budget on February 1, 2019.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that the economy is showing "green shoots" as the country emerges from the coronavirus lockdown and underscored the importance of being focussed on both life and livelihood.
'We have 750 districts across the country, and each district can create one cluster like Tirupur on any product of their choice.' 'This way, we can even have $3 trillion in exports.'
Finance ministry tells PM fiscal deficit target will be met, capex expenditure won't be cut and GDP growth will surpass 7.5%.
The pre-budget Economic Survey, which is tabled in Parliament ahead of the Union Budget to present the state of the economy and suggest policy prescriptions, quite often misses on the GDP forecast, sometimes by a significant margin. This time, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Economic Survey for 2021-22 in the Lok Sabha on Monday soon after the President's address to both Houses of Parliament. She will present the Union Budget for the next financial year beginning April 1, 2022, on Tuesday.
'The Modi government is trying hard to see if it could be sold to a private airline.' 'But it appears there are no takers.' 'If no buyer comes forward by June, the government will close down Air India,' predicts A K Bhattacharya.
Subramanian was the Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Global Development in the US before joining the ministry.
According to the third batch of supplementary demands for grants tabled in the Lok Sabha, approval is being sought for gross additional expenditure of over Rs 1.58 lakh crore.
'Most of the measures the finance minister announced will take effect after the lockdown.' 'By that time, millions of people will be starving.'
Minister of State for Commerce and Finance Nirmala Sitaraman, in Mumbai to address election rallies, took time out to talk about the economy, foreign investment and trade facilitation.
'The Budget numbers presented severely underestimate the magnitude of the unstated fiscal crisis that we went through in 2018-2019, which cannot be conceivably be fully reversed in 2019-2020,' points out Rathin Roy, director, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
Common return for excise duty and service tax was envisaged when 119 services were taxed.
'Look at the number of billionaires, the number of new billionaires in India.' 'Adani and Ambani are not the only ones.' 'What's wrong with people making money as long as it benefits us?'
The ex-PM urged the people to elect a government that upholds the Constitution of India and the principles of democracy and brings about inclusive growth for all.
However, independent economists are not as gung-ho as the finance ministry over the likelihood of deficit target being met this time around, says Indivjal Dhasmana.
The Budget would have been the perfect vehicle to introduce some bold initiatives.
That opportunity has been lost through this Budget, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
The immediate revenue loss could worsen the Centre's fiscal deficit, from the budgeted 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) to 3.7 per cent of GDP -- a massive 40-basis-point increase. It was stabilised at 3.4 per cent since 2016-17, report Abhishek Waghmare and Dilasha Seth.
The Modi government wants to have a smooth relationship with the DMK government.
'There is a time for lowering one's expectations of the economy -- and therefore not trying to do too much in the Budget,' notes T N Ninan.
'Our automakers export 50 per cent of what they manufacture and once the policy comes into play, which is in the next 2-3 years, we would become a Rs 10 trillion industry.'
From defending the shock announcement of demonetisation to spearheading the remonetisation drive that included the cumbersome process of printing and supplying new Rs 500 and Rs 2,000 notes, his calm composure brought a sense of serenity to an otherwise chaotic situation.
The demand was made by the Nationalist Congress Party, the Trinamool Congress and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam.
The passing of the GST bill and the failure of India to acquire NSG membership is set to rule the agenda in Parliament.
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