Fiscal deficit

The Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee said that the growth rate would be around 7.2 percent during the current year. He said that due to current uncertainty in global economy as euro zone crisis is still unresolved and volatility in international commodity prices especially fuel etc, it may be difficult to contain the fiscal deficit at 4.6 percent as targeted during the last budget. Full Article

Union Finance Minister meets Institutional Investors; Confident of Reducing Fiscal Deficit; Hopeful of Economic Growth around 8.5 per cent during 2011-12. Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee has expressed confidence in reducing the fiscal deficit and achieving the target of 4.6 % of GDP announced in the 2011-12 budget. He said that the provisional figures for 2010-11 have given us strong reason to be hopeful in this regard. Full Article

The government today said it will continue to focus on fiscal consolidation and would stick to the deficit target for the current fiscal, despite the uncertainty over global crude oil prices. "We are on the fiscal consolidation path. We don't want to occupy more space in the public borrowing, and we will stick to our fiscal deficit target and our revenue deficit target," Finance Secretary Sushma Nath said at a CII conference here. Full Article

The Economic Survey on Friday pegged the fiscal deficit for 2010-11 at 4.8 per cent, lower than the Budgetary estimates of 5.5 per cent, on the back of higher realisation from 3G spectrum auction and buoyancy in revenues. India's fiscal deficit had ballooned to 6.3 per cent of the GDP in 2009-10 in view of stimulus spending worth billions of dollars to combat global financial meltdown, and was pegged at 5.5 per cent for the current fiscal. Full Article

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is set to present his sixth national budget Monday, with people hoping for measures that will help them brave high prices and industry expecting steps that would spur demand and reduce tax burden . Full Article

Bank of Baroda and Canara Bank are among state-run banks that have been summoned by the finance ministry to discuss higher dividend payouts in an effort to cut fiscal deficit amid fears of shortfall in disinvestment gains. Chiefs of many banks will m Full Article

The Union finance minister had introduced the Finance Bill, 2010 in the Lok Sabha on February 26, 2010 and proposed to tax 8 new services. On May 8, 2010, the President gave her consent to the Finance Bill and thus the Finance Act, 1994 (14 of 2010) has come into effect from that date. SERVICE TAX IS BEING IMPOSED ON THE FOLLOWING SPECIFIED SERVICES: Full Article

(a) In the case of a resident woman below the age of 65 years, the basic exemption limit is INR 190,000. (b) In the case of a resident individual of the age of 65 years or above, the basic exemption limit is INR 240,000 (c) Surcharge is not applicable (d) Education cess is applicable @ 3 percent on income-tax Full Article