Rediff On The Net: The Business section: Budget 99


	BUDGET 1999 ANALYSES COLUMNISTS INTERVIEWS ECONOMY INDUSTRY FINANCE ECO SURVEY RLY BUDGET PROCESS BUDGET 98-99 BUDGET 97-98 ARCHIVES

ECONOMY

Bakht says harsh Budget not ruled out, despite Chautala
The industry minister said the Budget is being prepared with an open mind as the government has to perform according to the demands of the economy under any circumstances.

Pre-Budget poll: Analysts see fiscal deficit of 7 pc of GDP
The most disturbing trend, experts said, is the extent of the deficit being funded out of market borrowings which increased from 49 per cent in 1997-98 to 57 per cent in 1998-99 and expected to hit 60 per cent in 1999-2000.

Increased budgetary allocation for Railways unlikely
Freight movement and revenues are on the decline. Dependence on market borrowing and the private sector for funds is not the best solution. Nitish Kumar may be forced to hike passenger fares and freight tariff at a time when elections loom over ten states.

No plan to tax farm income in Budget, clarifies BJP
The party is of the view that agricultural production is dependent on vagaries of nature and hence there is no reason why the practice to exempt farm income from taxes should be discontinued.

Economists see through the politics and the business of Budget
'A deficit by itself is not bad. The deficit in India is caused by wasteful expenditure like higher salaries that has no returns. All the political parties, including the Congress and the BJP, supported the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations. And today, we have to pay the price for this lack of political courage.' A debate on Budget.

'Don't hike i-tax slab rates': Jaya lists dos and don'ts for Budget
Farmers are doing a national service by giving us self-sufficiency in food. So, they should be rewarded and not penalised, the AIADMK supremo said while speaking against proposals to tax farm income.

Cut direct tax rates, tax farm income: FICCI
The government can earn high revenues and reduce fiscal deficit by enlarging the corporate tax-base. At present, only 3,500 companies pay 85 per cent of total excise duty amount collected by the government, Sudhir Jalan said.

Economist urges no-tax on equities sale, concessions to infrastructure investors
Scrap capital gains tax on the proceeds of corporate mergers, acquisitions and other forms of restructuring. Equity must rescue us from the perils of rising debt burden, Fredie Mehta said.

Sinha's pre-Budget strike: prices of wheat, rice, sugar, urea hiked to prune fiscal deficit
Justifing the increase, the government said that there had been no increase in the price of essential commodities in the past two years while procurement prices had gone up considerably, forcing it to provide more subsidy on the PDS items.

Economists moot corpus for education and health in budget
The experts also recommended measures to mobilise Non Resident Indians' savings to take care of currency fluctuations and decline in the flow of foreign institutional investors' investments.

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