New Delhi:
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said this evening he wished he could have given India's vast tax-paying middle class a "little more."
"My only regret is that I didn't have enough money in my pockets to give them a little more...The farm sector is exempted from tax and these are people earning Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 50,000 a month and you ask them to pay a part of their salary as tax... I think that is patently unfair," Mr Jaitley told NDTV hours after he unveiled a budget of structural reforms that seek to revive growth, while spurning the temptation to resort to higher borrowing.
In his two-and-a-quarter hour Budget speech, one sans preambles or poetry, Mr Jaitley left tax rates and slabs unchanged, but raised the minimum income level at which people start paying tax and hiked levies on cigarettes and soft drinks.
Expectations had been high that the government would utilise India's strongest election mandate in 30 years to take radical steps comparable to the 1991 market reforms that unleashed an era of high economic growth.
But in a bid to halt a two-year spell of weak growth, the government instead announced incremental steps to boost capital spending and reassure foreign investors that they would get fair treatment.
The Finance Minister told NDTV that it was unfair to criticise his budget as lacking big bang ideas, because the government's immediate priority was to restore confidence in the economy.
"If you leave out the middle part of the speech and concentrate on the opening and last few pages...they will indicate the thrust of the direction this government wants to move in," Mr Jaitley said.
In Parliament, he vowed to raise the pace of economic growth to 7-8 per cent in three to four years from less than 5 per cent now. And he told lawmakers he would uphold the fiscal deficit target for this year inherited from the last government - 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product.
Ratings agency Moody's said a lack of detail on how India would cut the fiscal gap made it "challenging to assess the credit impact" of Jaitley's budget, but still said it would keep its investment grade rating for India.
Mr Jaitley announced he would raise ceilings on foreign investment in the defence and insurance sectors, but still bar non-residents from taking majority control in projects to supply the world's largest arms buyer. Limits on foreign investment in defence and insurance ventures will go up to 49 percent from 26 per cent.
In another signature initiative, the government will launch a tax reform this year to unify the 29 states into a common market, a measure that would boost revenue while making it easier to do business.
Investors have piled into Indian stocks on hopes that Mr Modi's leadership and mandate would break a logjam thwarting a host of reforms during the 10-year tenure of his predecessor Manmohan Singh, whose coalition government became increasingly divided.
While the concrete measures announced by Mr Jaitley fell short of the most bullish expectations, the markets finished a volatile day stronger, thanks to his commitment to fiscal probity.
Mr Jaitley said he would set up a high-level committee to review retrospective tax claims blamed for choking off foreign investment after companies such as Britain's Vodafone were hit with massive demands.
He sought to reassure investors by promising a stable tax regime and saying the government would not "ordinarily" create new liabilities retrospectively, but stopped short of moving to scrap the law.
He told NDTV, "We are in the process of closing the door on retrospective taxes. We are not enthusiastic about retro taxes," Mr Jaitley said.
He also defended the 29 Rs. 100 crore schemes that became a talking point from his budget, telling NDTV, "This is the beginning of a process - there are a few steps that are directional and these are a part of the roadmap."
"My only regret is that I didn't have enough money in my pockets to give them a little more...The farm sector is exempted from tax and these are people earning Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 50,000 a month and you ask them to pay a part of their salary as tax... I think that is patently unfair," Mr Jaitley told NDTV hours after he unveiled a budget of structural reforms that seek to revive growth, while spurning the temptation to resort to higher borrowing.
In his two-and-a-quarter hour Budget speech, one sans preambles or poetry, Mr Jaitley left tax rates and slabs unchanged, but raised the minimum income level at which people start paying tax and hiked levies on cigarettes and soft drinks.
Expectations had been high that the government would utilise India's strongest election mandate in 30 years to take radical steps comparable to the 1991 market reforms that unleashed an era of high economic growth.
But in a bid to halt a two-year spell of weak growth, the government instead announced incremental steps to boost capital spending and reassure foreign investors that they would get fair treatment.
The Finance Minister told NDTV that it was unfair to criticise his budget as lacking big bang ideas, because the government's immediate priority was to restore confidence in the economy.
"If you leave out the middle part of the speech and concentrate on the opening and last few pages...they will indicate the thrust of the direction this government wants to move in," Mr Jaitley said.
In Parliament, he vowed to raise the pace of economic growth to 7-8 per cent in three to four years from less than 5 per cent now. And he told lawmakers he would uphold the fiscal deficit target for this year inherited from the last government - 4.1 per cent of gross domestic product.
Ratings agency Moody's said a lack of detail on how India would cut the fiscal gap made it "challenging to assess the credit impact" of Jaitley's budget, but still said it would keep its investment grade rating for India.
Mr Jaitley announced he would raise ceilings on foreign investment in the defence and insurance sectors, but still bar non-residents from taking majority control in projects to supply the world's largest arms buyer. Limits on foreign investment in defence and insurance ventures will go up to 49 percent from 26 per cent.
In another signature initiative, the government will launch a tax reform this year to unify the 29 states into a common market, a measure that would boost revenue while making it easier to do business.
Investors have piled into Indian stocks on hopes that Mr Modi's leadership and mandate would break a logjam thwarting a host of reforms during the 10-year tenure of his predecessor Manmohan Singh, whose coalition government became increasingly divided.
While the concrete measures announced by Mr Jaitley fell short of the most bullish expectations, the markets finished a volatile day stronger, thanks to his commitment to fiscal probity.
Mr Jaitley said he would set up a high-level committee to review retrospective tax claims blamed for choking off foreign investment after companies such as Britain's Vodafone were hit with massive demands.
He sought to reassure investors by promising a stable tax regime and saying the government would not "ordinarily" create new liabilities retrospectively, but stopped short of moving to scrap the law.
He told NDTV, "We are in the process of closing the door on retrospective taxes. We are not enthusiastic about retro taxes," Mr Jaitley said.
He also defended the 29 Rs. 100 crore schemes that became a talking point from his budget, telling NDTV, "This is the beginning of a process - there are a few steps that are directional and these are a part of the roadmap."
Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world
