Cong leaders to present Budget wish list to FM on Feb 14

Indian National Congress leaders are expected to give to Finance Minister P Chidambaram this week their wish- list for 2013-14 Budget to make it a ‘please-all’ affair at a time when Lok Sabha polls are not far away. The Minister will be going to the All India Congress Committee (AICC) headquarters on February 14 to hold consultations with Congress leaders, who are expected to make a strong pitch for hiking I-T exemption limit and raising allocations for anti-poverty programmes in the upcoming Budget. [caption id=“attachment_620453” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] With the Lok Sabha polls just 15 months away, Congress leaders would want the government to come out with a ‘very promising’ Budget with a focus on populist schemes along with economic reforms.[/caption] With the Lok Sabha polls just 15 months away, Congress leaders would want the government to come out with a ‘very promising’ Budget with a focus on populist schemes along with economic reforms. This would be the last Budget of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA-II) government. There would be vote-on-account in 2014 in view of elections. Although Chidambaram has expressed his intention to bring down fiscal deficit to 4.8 per cent of the Gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013-14 from 5.3 per estimated in the current fiscal, Congress leaders are likely to impress upon him the need to raise the tax exemption limit to provide relief to taxpayers from high inflation. At present, the annual income tax exemption limit is Rs 2 lakh and the Standing Committee, headed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yashwant Sinha, had suggested that it be raised to Rs 3 lakh. Party leaders have given hints that the budgetary exercise could witness start of many programmes which are going to have far-reaching consequences. Several economic reforms, Food Security law and Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) are among measures that are being planned to be implemented in the year ahead. There has been talk that the Budget could be used for giving greater focus to the problems of the youth at a time when majority of the population is below 45. The Budget session of Parliament will start on February 21 and the Budget will be presented on February 28. PTI