Mukherjee hopes Budget will be presented in due time

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor C. Rangarajan said Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's union budget presented in parliament Monday was a difficult balancing act.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - With a cherry-brown briefcase in hand, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee arrived in parliament Monday to present India's budget for this fiscal with hopes high that his proposals will help put the $1.2 trillion economy back on the high growth track. Dressed in a spotless white bandhgala suit, the 73-year-old politician will have to draw from his experience of having presented three regular budgets as finance minister between January 1982 and December 1984 to find the resources for a host of pre-election promises made by his Congress party.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present the first general budget at 11am today in Lok Sabha. This is the first general budget of the UPA government after coming to power for second term.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's fiscal budget has risen from Rs.193 crores to over Rs.10 lakh crores in the 63 years since independence of the country in 1947, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said while presenting the budget for 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha Monday. "Madam speaker, I am happy to announce that for the first time, the budget estimates have crossed Rs.10 lakh crores.

July 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Amid high expectations in a slowing economy, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will present India's national budget for this fiscal Monday, seeking a fine balance between the need for resources to fund welfare schemes and minimising the burden on the average citizen and industry. The veteran politician will need to draw from his experience of having presented three regular budgets as finance minister between January 1982 and December 1984 and push forward the agenda listed in the interim budget he tabled in February.

June 19th, 2009 New Delhi, June 19 (ANI): Union Food Processing Minister Subodh Kant Sahay and Minister for Information and Broadcasting Ambika Soni met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee ahead of the general budget, which is to be presented on July 6. As part of the pre-budget exercise, Mukherjee held parleys with various stakeholders, state finance ministers, industrialist groups, leading economists, trade unionists and top officials of various financial institutions.

June 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee held pre-budget discussions with leaders of Congress party ahead of the budget for full fiscal year 2009/10 (April-March) that would be presented on July 6. "As a party man I have an obligation to listen to the views of my party leaders.

June 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday said the budget for fiscal 2009-10 to be presented next month would reflect the views of everyone. Emerging from a pre-budget meeting of senior party leaders that he chaired, Mukherjee told reporters at the Congress headquarters here: "We had earlier taken the suggestions of industrialists and trade unions.

May 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday said the government would present the budget for 2009-10 in the first week of July. "I would not like to have a second batch of vote on account.

May 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee Saturday promised every effort to lift the Indian economy out of the current slowdown and said the regular budget will be presented in due course. "The Indian economy remains resilient," the veteran Congress leader told reporters at his residence, soon after a Rashtrapati Bhavan communiqu named him finance minister.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Saying a 'threshold has been crossed' with the Mumbai terror attacks, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee hiked the allocation for defence by 34 percent to Rs.141,703 crore (Rs.1.417 trillion) in the interim budget for 2009-10 he presented in the Lok Sabha Monday. The allocation is nearly 15 percent of the total interim budget of Rs.953,231 crore for the fiscal beginning April 1.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee began presenting the interim budget for the next fiscal amid expectations that measures will be announced to cushion the impact of global meltdown on the Indian economy, and help revive consumer demand. The exercise began with Mukherjee reading out his budget speech in the Lok Sabha, during which he will also seek an approval to finance the government's expenditure, till such time the regular budget is presented by a new government after elections, and passed by parliament.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had to Monday interrupt the interim budget presentation by Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee after Janata Dal-Secular MP M.P. Veerendra Kumar fell ill.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Saying that the Mumbai terror attacks had given 'an entirely new dimension' to cross-border terrorism, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee raised the allocation for defence 34 percent to Rs.1,41,703 crore (Rs.1.417 trillion) in the interim budget for 2009-10 he presented in the Lok Sabha Monday. The total revised expenditure for 2008-09 was Rs.1,14,600 crore against the allocation of Rs.1,05,600 crore, said Mukherjee, who was presenting the budget on behalf of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is recovering from coronary bypass surgery.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Reacting to criticisms over lack of measures in the interim budget presented Monday, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said in an election year, an incumbent government had the mandate only to present a vote on account. 'I think this is a failure to understand the limitations of an interim budget,' Ahluwalia said, soon after industry and average citizens complained that the interim budget tabled in parliament by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had no specific measures on tax rates or to help cushion the impact of global slowdown.