He kept the central excise rate, customs duty and service tax rates intact. He hiked the minimum alternate tax for zero-tax companies to 15 per cent — not seen lightly by India Inc. Even as he did away with the commodities transaction tax, he retained the securities transaction tax creating arbitrage opportunities between two segments of financial markets. Mukherjee’s direct tax measures were revenue neutral, but in indirect taxes, the additional resource mobilization was a meagre Rs 2,000 crore.

After all, it was an expenditure budget.

He used all available resources for enhancing allocations of existing flagship programmes such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act.

He also set aside modest sums for new social sector schemes such as Rajiv Awas Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana for villages which have a Scheduled Caste majority.

His large expenditure plan — the total spend tops Rs 10 lakh crore for the current fiscal — has given him the confidence to assume a growth rate of 7 per cent in the current fiscal with inflation stabilizing between 2 per cent and 4 per cent by March 2010.

Playing along the fiscal stimulus plan and recognising that infrastructure was one area neglected in the last few years, Mukherjee facilitated Rs 1,00,000 crore worth investment in public private partnership projects through a refinance window made available by IIFCL.

The veteran politician in Mukherjee ensured that his presentation was not chaotic — just two interruptions by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav — and devoid of announcements that would evoke strong sentiments. “He did not have to make big announcements just for the market,” said Vijayan Krishnamurthy, Executive Chairman, JP Morgan AMC, adding these can be undertaken outside the Budget.

... contd.