For the rest, Budget 2007 made a significant increase in the pet schemes of the UPA. Giving in to political pressure for larger spending on schemes, the Gross Budgetary Support for the Plan will be raised from Rs 1.7 lakh crore to Rs 2.0 lakh crore.

Expenditure on school education is slated to go up by 35 percent. Rs 7,324 crore will be spent on mid-day meal schemes. Rs 24,603 crore will be spent on Bharat Nirman. Rs 15,291 crore will be spent on health and family welfare, up by 22 percent from last year’s budget estimate. The rural job guarantee scheme is proposed to be extended from the present 200 districts to 330 districts. An initial budget of Rs 12,000 crore will be alloted to the scheme but since the scheme is demand-driven, if more money is needed, it will be provided later.

Budget 2007-2008

“Our human and development indices are low, not because of high growth but because growth is not high enough... Faster economic growth has given us once again the opportunity to unfurl the sails and catch the wind.”
— P Chidambaram

Basic Numbers

New limit for I-T exemption is Rs 1.1 lakh; 1.45 lakh for women; 1.95 lakh for senior citizens

• Fiscal deficit for 2006-07 revised to 3.7% of GDP against 3.8% budgeted; for 2007-08, 3.3%

• Revenue deficit for 2006-07: 2% of GDP; for 2007-08: 1.5%

•l Gross budgetary support for Plan raised by 18.7% to Rs 205,100 crore from Rs 172,728 crore

... contd.