The Union Finance Minister Shri P Chidambaram called the policy decisions of the Central Government to correct some prices and review of certain tax policies as “a dose of bitter medicine”. Presenting the General Budget 2013-14 in Lok Sabha today, Shri Chidambaram said, faced with a huge fiscal deficit, the Government had no choice but to rationalize expenditure. He said that the Government took some policy decisions that had been deferred for too long and undertook a review of certain tax policies.

The Finance Minister stated that in the Budget for 2012-13, the estimate of Plan Expenditure was too ambitious and the estimate of non-Plan Expenditure was too conservative. He said that the Government retrieved some economic space and used that economic space to advance Government’s socio economic objectives.

DSM/MG/DP/50

(Release ID :92727)

Expenditure rationalisation to restore fiscal balance through price corrections and targeted tax policy review in the Budget. The Budget announces measures to rationalise expenditure, implement corrective price measures and undertake a tax policy review to address a substantial fiscal deficit, correcting prior estimation errors between Plan and non Plan Expenditure and reallocating retrieved economic space to advance socio economic objectives.