Expectations from India's 2013-14 budget

India will deliver on Thursday its federal budget for the 2013/14 fiscal year that starts on April 1.

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram is expected to push fiscal consolidation through spending cuts while looking to increase revenues to ward off the threat of a credit rating downgrade. Following are expectations from economists, analysts, investors and companies from the budget.

FISCAL DEFICIT

*Government target seen at 4.8 percent of gross domestic product for 2013/14 Government has revised 2012/13 target to 5.3 percent of gross domestic product, compared with 5.1 percent estimated in the budget in March.

GROWTH

Government's GDP growth forecast for 2013/14 seen at 6 to 6.5 percent, compared with a decade-low of 5 percent in 2012/13 according to estimates released by the ministry of statistics. The finance minister has said the economy should expand 5.5 percent in 2012/13.

BORROWING

Analysts expect net government borrowing below 5 trillion rupees ($92.4 billion) in FY14, little changed from 4.67 trillion rupees in FY13

SUBSIDIES

Total subsidy burden seen falling by 400 billion-500 billion rupees from estimated 2.6 trillion rupees in FY13 Ratio of subsidy payments to GDP seen below 2 percent by the end of 2013/14, compared with preliminary expectations of about 2.5 percent in 2012/13 FY14 food subsidy bill seen between 850 billion and 1 trillion rupees versus 750 billion rupees budget estimates for current year Likely to cut fertiliser subsidy by at least 15 percent for 2013/14

SPENDING

Finance minister plans to cut FY14 public spending target by up to 10 percent from FY13's original target Of 14.9 trillion rupees Spending on defence, rail , other development and welfare projects to be cut, according to Reuters sources

FY13 public expenditure already reduced by 9 percent from original target

DIVESTMENT

Likely to target 400 billion rupees via stake sales in FY14 in state-run companies versus estimated 300 billion rupees in FY13

... contd.

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