Tax breaks, welfare schemes in common man's Budget

THE BIG PICTURE: Businessmen in Mumbai watch Mukherjee presenting the Budget on a TV screen.

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New Delhi: Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday presented a revival-oriented Budget with more funds for welfare schemes and infrastructure, a promise to restore India's high economic growth and better delivery mechanisms to reach the fruits of development to the poorest.

Amid high hopes from industry and the average citizen alike, the Budget also promised new incentives to farmers, a big hike in funds for projects with emphasis on rural reconstruction and employment, more allocation for urban development and a fresh impetus to energy security.

During his 100-minute Budget speech in the Lok Sabha, Mukherjee promised a National Food Security Act soon to give 25 kg of rice or wheat per month to the poor at a subsidised price of Rs 3 per kg while promising a 40-percent hike in the health insurance scheme for people below the poverty line.

The 73-year-old politician, who had presented his last full Budget as Finance Minister in the Indira Gandhi government 25 years ago, said the new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government would continue to push its agenda of ensuring "inclusive growth and equitable development" while also meeting the "rising expectations of a young India".

"The Government also recognises the challenges," Mukherjee said, referring to the task involved in countering the decline of India's high growth rate to 6.7 percent in the past year from over 9 percent in the preceding three.

"The first challenge is to bring back the GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate to over 9 percent per annum," he said, setting the tone of what is his fourth career budget watched by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

He said the other challenges included better governance and ensuring that the fruits of development reached across regions to touch the lives of every citizen - the "aam admi" (the common man) as he called them.

"The finance minister has done an admirable job," the Prime Minister said, soon after the Budget was presented in the Lok Sabha. "The main aim of the budget is to minimise the impact of global recession," Manmohan Singh said.