Zee Media Bureau/Vibhuti Jaitly
New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who presented his maiden Budget 2014-15 in Parliament promising tax relief and higher economic growth on Thursday, expressed confidence that a slew of measures announced in the General Budget will boost the national economy in the days to come.
The Finance Minister said this while unveiling the General Budget 2014-15 in his 2 hours and 8 minute long speech in Parliament. The Budget focuses on job creation, investments, spurring economic growth, which is the need of the hour, the Finance Minister said.
“There were issues when a problem was created in the past and I was expected to clear the problem,” Jaitley said amid thunderous applause from his party members.
The Finance Minister stressed that the prevailing economic situation presents a tough challenge and there was need to introduce “fiscal prudence” that will lead to fiscal consolidation and discipline.
The government will aim to retain the fiscal deficit target for 2014-15 at 4.1 percent of GDP and reduce it further to 3 per cent by 2016-17, he said. “I expect the Budget steps will help expand the economy.”
On raising the tax exemption limit to Rs 2.5 lakh from the existing Rs 2 lakh, the Finance Minister said, “Raising tax rates is done to crimp economic activities.”
Jaitley further said that he had to resolve many tax related problems which his predecessor had created.
“ I have to raise tax base to meet FY 15 fiscal gap aim,” the FM said.
The reduction in fiscal deficit by the UPA government, he said, was mainly achieved by a reduction in expenditure rather than by way of realisation of higher revenues.
The Finance Minister also promised formation of a high-level committee to deal with retrospective taxation.
Assuring investors that retrospective amendments to tax laws will be undertaken with extreme caution, Jaitley said all fresh cases arising out of the 2012 amendment of I-T Act will be looked into by a high level CBDT committee.
However, the existing tax disputes, arising out of Retrospective Amendment to the Income tax Act, 1961, and are pending in Courts, will be allowed to reach their logical conclusions, he said.
On the Goods and Services Taxes (GST), Jaitley assured that he can “bring a solution to the GST problem”. “The government will work to introduce the much awaited GST this year. The GST aims to replace a series of existing taxes such as excise duty, service tax and value added tax (VAT),” he said.
Jaitley also spoke about the government's intention to “overhaul the subsidy regime” to ensure that the subsidies reach the targeted beneficiaries. Food subsidy for FY15 was raised to Rs 72,970 crore and the oil subsidy was kept at Rs 63,427 crore.
“ I tried my best to give fillip to infrastructure and manufacturing sector,” Jaitley concluded.
