Union Budget Highlights

(RTTNews.com) - Presenting what was his seventh Union Budget in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee spent a considerable time on listing grim ground realities and explaining the need to expedite decision making for better governance.

He has introduced amendments to the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act to cut the fiscal deficit in a phased manner.

Subsidies would be restricted to 2 percent of the GDP before further bringing down to 1.7 percent of GDP, he said. The finance minister pegged the divestment target for the next financial year at Rs 30000 crore and assured the house that at least 51 percent control will remain with the government.

"The global crisis has affected us. India's gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to grow at 6.9 percent in 2011-12 after having grown at 8.4 percent in each of the two preceding years. But it is also a fact that in any cross-country comparison, India still remains among the front-runners in economic growth," he said.