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).
Mukherjee could not implement nine of the promises he made in his Budget for 2009-10 and most of these pertained to significant areas of the economy.
Defending the Centre's decision to deploy paramilitary forces in Lalgarh, Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said the Centre could not sit idle when lives of people were in danger and the state government failed to reopen Lalgarh police station.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday approved the interim general budget which will be presented in the Lok Sabha by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday. Singh went through the interim budget related papers and after formally signing them, forwarded them to President Pratibha Patil, a Prime Minister's Office spokesman said."The Prime Minister also approved the interim budget speech," the spokesman added.
The 8.9 per cent growth during the first half of this fiscal notwithstanding, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday said he would prefer to be conservative and would be happy if the economy this fiscal were to grow by 8.75 per cent.
Borrowing at 29 paise will account for the largest share of every rupee that the government will use for financing the Union Budget 2010-11, while will it spend the most - 21 paise - on central plan.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday asked banks to cut interest rates and provide cheap credit to industry in order to spur economic activity.
Going the direct subsidy route, the prices of kerosene and LPG will go up in the market, but the extent of rise will not be as high as when the subsidy is given to everyone.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday described the failure of talks between India's telecom giant Bharti Airtel and South Africa's MTN on the $23 billion merger deal as "part of the game".
The remarks came amid reports of mounting tension between the finance ministry and the RBI over the autonomy of monetary policy makers.
Neerja Chowdhury explains why the government was soft where it could have been tough. And tough where it could have demonstrated more patience
Neerja Chowdhury explains why the government was soft where it could have been tough. And tough where it could have demonstrated more patience
Veteran Congressman Pranab Mukherjee on Monday took over as the Finance Minister and held meetings with top ministry officials to deliberate on various issues faced by the slackening economy as well as the forthcoming Budget.
Besides French Finance Minister Lagarde, seen as a strong candidate, there are four to five other aspirants in the race for the post vacated by Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The Empowered Committee of state finance ministers is meeting under the chairmanship of West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta to work out agreements on various aspects of the GST.
Finance Minister is unhappy over lack of storage capacity.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his deputy Shashi Tharoor are ready to vacate their luxury hotel rooms following Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's call for austerity.
Hoping to meet the indirect tax collection target this fiscal despite a negative trend in the first four months, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday ruled out tax cuts to tackle the drought faced by nearly half of the country.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma will be meeting Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to make a case for the extension of one of the most popular incentives to exporters, the Duty Entitlement Passbook Scheme (DEPB), which is slated for expiry on June 30. DEPB is a duty reimbursement scheme, launched 14 years earlier.
As the finance ministry gives the final touches to the country's biggest financial planning exercise, there is widespread criticism over the government's inability to tackle inflation, bring back black money stashed overseas and keep fiscal deficit in check.
The wholesale price-based inflation may have moderated somewhat in March but the pressure on prices is likely to continue for another two months, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said.
The government and financial sector regulators buried their differences on the proposed Financial Stability & Development Council (FSDC) after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee offered the Reserve Bank of India governor a sweetener.
R Gopalan has been appointed as Secretary Economic Affairs. He will hold this position, in addition to his current charge as Secretary Financial Services.
Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Saturday said that the demand for smaller states does not mean that new states would be created everywhere.
Food inflation had soared to a year's high of 18.32 per cent for the week ending December 25 before declining to 16.91 per cent in the subsequent week.
Mukherjee said uncertainty was still there on oil prices front due to unrest in West Asia and North Africa.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that the economy was expected to revive in the second half of the year on the back of the latest Index of Industrial Production numbers, return of foreign institutional investors to the markets over the last two months and the normal functioning of the credit markets
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has made it clear that the government would not travel the path of unbridled divestment. The 10 per cent cap on offloading shares of profit-making public-sector undertakings (PSUs) would stay for the next four years, as Mukherjee said he preferred a cautious approach towards divestment.
Tension between the government, specially the finance ministry, and RBI is as old as the central bank itself.
'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.'
India's Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will arrive in London on Thursday to participate in the two-day G20 Finance Ministers' and Bank Governors' meeting commencing on Friday to discuss the financial crisis.
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
As the role of the powers-that-be in the government comes under the scanner, pressure is being mounted on the two ED officers investigating the 2G case from the highest level, particularly the finance ministry.
'It is palpably prejudiced and totally at variance with public and historical opinion.' 'As a result, he cannot be taken seriously in other matters as well because of his penchant for playing safe,' says Amulya Ganguli.
Asked about the clash between Chinese and Indian soldiers at Galwan Valley in Ladakh last month, Pawar said, "When I say there should be no politics over the issue, it is because we can attack them. But the entire country will have to pay a heavy price when there is retaliation to the attack."
In the Budget for 2010-11, the sector will claim as much as 46 per cent of Rs 3.73 lakh crore (Rs 3.73 trillion) of the total plan outlay.
Excise duty was cut by six per cent in two phases since December 2008 from a peak of 14 per cent earlier to perk up the economy, which came under the impact of deepening financial crisis.
Amid speculation that taxes and duties might be raised as part of a partial rollback of the economic stimulus, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present the Budget for 2010-11 on Friday.
Quoting medieval India's political thinker Kautilya as well as Mahatma Gandhi, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday punctuated his Budget speech with words of wisdom, wit and humour.
The government is considering to roll back 10 per cent excise duty on branded garments, due to large scale protest by industry bodies in many parts of the country, including West Bengal, which goes to polls next month.
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