Delhi
To spur economic activities, the Government
had initiated massive spending programmes and slashed duties from December 2008
in three stage following the global financial crisis that began in September
2008.
However, partially rolling back the stimulus
in Budget 2011, the Government has raised excise duty by 2 per cent to 10 per
cent and enhanced tax rates on other products making consumer goods like cars,
ACs and several other items expensive.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee presented
a Budget with fiscal deficit of 5.5 per cent for the next fiscal as he pegged
total expenditure at Rs 11.09 lakh crore on an estimated revenue of total tax
and non-tax at Rs 6.82 lakh crore for 2010-11.
The fiscal deficit for the current fiscal
is pegged at 6.9 percent, a tad over the previous estimate of 6.8 percent.
Till January, the Centre's overall
expenditure stood at over Rs 7.83 lakh crore, while receipts were way below at around
Rs 4.34 lakh crore, leading to a deficit of nearly Rs 3.5 lakh crore.
The Government had pegged total expenditure
at the record level of over Rs 10.2 lakh crore this fiscal, 76.8 per cent of which
has already been incurred till January.
Of the over Rs 7.8-lakh crore expenditure
incurred by the Government, over 70 per cent is accounted by non-plan outgo including
interest payments.
Meanwhile, the revenue deficit, which is the
excess of revenue expenditure like salaries over revenue income, rose to Rs
2.84 lakh crore till January, an increase of 100 percent over the same time
last year. The Government's tax collections at Rs 3.33 lakh crore contributed
the most to its kitty.
PTI
