The Hindu : Front Page : Huge allocation for flagship schemes

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Tuesday, Feb 17, 2009
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Front Page

Huge allocation for flagship schemes

Ashok Dasgupta

No mandate to tweak rates, says Pranab

NEW DELHI: Belying all expectations of India Inc. of fiscal sops to weather the impact of the global downturn, the United Progressive Alliance government, in the interim budget 2009-10 presented on Monday, announced a massive allocation of Rs. 1,31,317 crore for its various flagship programmes to spur the economy and benefit the common man. It also indicated the need for tax relief in 2009-10, when the regular budget is presented by a new regime after the Lok Sabha elections.

Presenting the interim budget for a vote-on-account for the necessary government expenditure in the first four months of the new fiscal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who holds charge of Finance, desisted from announcing any sops as he did not have the parliamentary mandate to “tweak” the rates and did whatever he could under the constraints.

“Constitutional propriety requires that new government formulates the tax and expenditure policies for 2009-10… Therefore, I am presenting an interim budget for the purpose of vote-on-account to enable the government to meet expenditure during the first four months of the next financial year,” he said.

Detailing the performance of the UPA regime with regard to its Common Minimum Programme and achieving a gross domestic product growth of 9 per cent and above in three consecutive years till 2007-08, he highlighted the steps taken to tackle the slowdown in the current fiscal.

Besides making a much higher allocation for defence at Rs 1,41,703 crore in view of the deteriorating security environment owing to cross-border terrorism, Mr. Mukherjee announced massive spending on social sector schemes for the larger benefit of the “aam aadmi.” Among these, the Bharat Nirman programme was allocated Rs. 40,900 crore while Rs. 30,100 crore has been set apart for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme for the new fiscal.

With the thrust on higher spending on the social sector, the “Sarva Siksha Abhiyan” has been allocated Rs. 13,100 crore, the Integrated Child Development Services Rs. 6,705 crore, the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Scheme Rs. 11,842 crore, the National Rural Health Mission Rs. 12,070 crore, the Rajiv Gandhi Rural Drinking Water Mission Rs. 7,400 crore and the Total Rural Sanitation Programme Rs. 1,200 crore.

“In the current environment, there is a clear need for contra-cyclical policy and it calls for a substantial increase in expenditure in infrastructure development, where we have a large gap and in rural development where programmes such as Bharat Nirman and NREGS are playing a vital role,” he said.

Related links

Budget 2009-2010