Roundup: India introduces pro-growth, socially oriented budget

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday introduced to the Parliament its full-year budget for the fiscal year 2015-16, marked by what officials call "progressive, positive, and practical" intentions.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the budget to the joint session of two houses of Parliament, announcing a series of measures to help push growth and reform to better capitalize the tax system, reinforcing social and health protection, upstaging education, encouraging technology and innovation, and supporting farmers.

Prime Minister Modi said the budget is "pro-poor, pro-growth, pro-middle class, pro-youth and paradigm shifting."

Vowing to "wipe every tear from every eye," the Modi government is targeting the growth rate of eight percent by the end of the next fiscal year, while working to lift millions out of poverty, offering social protection to the vulnerable, and providing education, skills and jobs to the youth.

On the growth side, one big initiative is to reduce tax for corporations from the current 30 percent to 25 percent in five years so that private corporations could play a more active role in bringing about growth, creating jobs and participating in the " Make in India" scheme, the brain child of the BJP government.

In the meantime, with 70 percent of the country's population living in rural areas, the government promised to infuse 137 billion U.S. dollars into agriculture credit programs to help farmers survive and develop.

The latest economic survey showed the country's agriculture is on the good track and being stabilized despite lack of monsoon rains last year. However, industrial growth is on decline due to absence of investment by private companies.

As a kind of stimulus package, 11.2 billion U.S. dollars of public spending would be spent on infrastructure construction, badly needed for the country's ever expanding economy.

The over-dependence on public spending, however, could also hamper efforts for fiscal consolidation by the government which is trying to reduce public deficit by three percent of the GDP within years.

On the other hand, the educational and social aspects in the budget have won a lot of positive appraisals. Some say they have provided a comprehensive vision for the country through education, jobs, skill training, technology development and health programs.

At least three new campuses for the country's best science and technology universities will be set up and students will have access to easier financial help and scholarships. Funds will be available for start ups and enterprises in technological sector, while customs duties will be reduced for some commodities needed to domestic manufacturing, says the budget.

Health protection will also be widened for the poor, disabled and elderly, according to the budget. Jobs for at least one member of one family must also be a must by 2022, according to the government.

At the same time, the government also vows to hit black money very hard by imposing 10-year jail terms for the convicted. Companies evading tax will be given 300 percent penalty. Income tax will be by two percent on the super-rich with income above 10 million rupees (161,300 U.S. dollars) annually. Endi