Calls for 9 percent Plus Growth for a Sustainable Period to achieve the Objective of Inclusive Growth; Industry Asks for Improvement in Outcome of Expenditure on Social Programmes, Widening of Tax Net, Shifting to Accrual Based Budgeting from Cash Based, Acceleration in the Disinvestment Process and Boost in Agricultural Growth among Others.

The Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee said that in the era of coalition politics, decisions are taken through consensus as you have to carry others with you. The Finance Minister said that the current year was a challenging year as we had to face the problem of inflation, fiscal deficit and maintenance of sustainable and inclusive growth.

Diesel car buyers may have to shell out more with the Finance Ministry considering the imposition of higher excise duty on such vehicles in the upcoming Budget likely to be unveiled sometime in March. In order to discourage consumption of subsidised diesel by personal vehicle owners, the Petroleum Ministry had suggested the imposition of higher duty on the purchase of diesel cars to the Finance Ministry.

To avoid disputes like the Vodafone tax case in future, government is contemplating incorporation of provisions on taxation of overseas deals from the stalled Direct Taxes Code (DTC) Bill in the Budget for 2012-13.

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.

The Union Finance Minister, Shri Pranab Mukherjee has emphasized that in a federal country like ours, States and Centre complement each other in managing the fiscal policy and the economy. He said that coordination between Centre and States is extremely vital for creating a conducive environment for growth and inclusive development in the country.

The Union Finance Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee said that food inflation has come down on the negative side in the last two consecutive weeks. The annual rate of inflation (year on year) for December 2011 has declined to 7.47% as against 9.11 % in November 2011 and 9.45% in December 2010. The Finance Minister Shri Mukherjee was addressing the representatives of Trade Union Groups as part of the ongoing Pre-Budget Consultations exercise for the year 2012-13.