Finance minister P. Chidambaram presents interim Budget 2014-15 in parliament

Finance Minister P Chidambaram presented the Interim Budget for 2014-15 in Parliament on Monday. He proposed no major changes in tax laws but reduced the excise duty to 10 percent from current 12 percent on capital goods and consumer durables.

Rice transport and process, Blood banks have been exempted from service tax. The excise duty has been reduced for auto sector leading to cheaper cars, SUVs and bikes. There hasn’t been any steep decline in investment except in mining and manufacturing. The food production is estimated to be at 263 million tonnes. About 19 oil blocks were given out for exploration and 7 new airports are under construction.

Chidambaram said that the GDP growth has improved and it will be around 4.9 percent for the financial year 2013-14. He said that the current account deficit (CAD) of India which threatened to exceed previous year’s USD 88 billion will be contained at USD 45 billion in current year.

The Finance Minister said that about the foreign exchange reserves will be increased by USD 15 billion by the end of the financial year and India’s exports are likely to touch USD 326 billion in 2013-14 whereas they stood at USD 304.5 billion in 2012-13.

The Budget for 2014-15 will be presented after the elections by the new government in June-July 2014.