Finance minister seen walking budget tightrope

• Posted by boss 664 February 15, 2014 - Filed in Business - #Finance  - 2,059 views

  
   

  Finance Minister P. Chidambaram will be walking a tightrope when he presents an interim budget for the coming fiscal year on Monday, doling out more funds to woo voters and tax cuts to support industry while projecting a lower fiscal deficit before elections.  

   

  Asia's third-largest economy is facing its worst economic slowdown in nearly a decade, with shrinking manufacturing, slower jobs growth and high inflation limiting the government's ability to offer sops to voters or companies to boost growth.

  Opinion polls predict defeat for the Congress-led ruling alliance in elections due by May amid widespread discontent with its mismanagement of the economy, high inflation and corruption scandals.

  Officials say Chidambaram is likely to make a last-ditch attempt to win back voters by announcing more funds for health, rural jobs, roads and food subsidies, and to speak about the government's achievements in the last 10 years.

  ECONOMY LOSING STEAM

  Industrial output has fallen 0.1 percent in the first nine months of 2013/14 fiscal year, and annual car sales declined by about 5 percent.

  Since taking charge last August, Chidambaram has taken many steps such as reducing spending and gold imports to rein in the fiscal and current account deficit that helped stave off the threat of credit rating downgrades last year.

  But he has made limited headway in taming persistently high inflation and shoring up economic growth.

  The economy is projected to grow by 4.9 percent for the current fiscal year ending in March, much lower than the more than 9 percent growth seen before the 2008  global financial crisis. Annual retail inflation remains uncomfortably near 9 percent.

  Chidambaram is likely to project near 6 percent GDP growth and a fiscal deficit target of 4.2 percent of gross domestic product for coming 2014/15 fiscal year.

  He is expected to report a fiscal deficit of nearly 4.8 percent of GDP for the current fiscal year, helped by sharp spending cuts, higher receipts from the sale of telecoms spectrum and dividends from state firms.

  "We will surprise everyone on the fiscal deficit numbers," a senior finance ministry official told Reuters.