Date:01/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/03/01/stories/2008030151322400.htm

Back The ‘lucky’ Finance Minister

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Feb. 29 The usual white dhoti, the shirt — starched crisp, pashmina shawl around his shoulder P. Chidambaram, presenting his fifth Union Budget in a row, took a bow as a ‘lucky’ Finance Minister.

The Minister was quick to point out that it was a rare honour and privilege that he had “to share with only one of his distinguished predecessors, Dr Manmohan Singh.” The Finance Minister whose score stands at a total of seven, needs a budget more to beat Morarji Desai’s standing record of presenting eight Budgets.

Chidambaram who started his presentation with well emphasised proposals for the social sector, built tempo and suspense leading to a dramatic climax before listing out his tax proposals. The Budget presentation, this time round was comparatively smooth.

A stubborn Opposition uproar for his proposals to waive off debt to small and marginal farmers was silenced by the Lok Sabha, Speaker’s scold, “Is this the concern the house is showing to the farmers of India?” A TV-conscious house was temporarily, if not finally, silenced.

An allotment of Rs 7,200 crore to the Ministry of Women and Child Development, got an enthusiastic reaction from a woman parliamentarian, known for her gusto. “Taliyan, taliyan!” she called, but got laughter, instead.

Coming to the tax proposals, the Finance Minister geared up with an adjustment of his shawl. Citing how the UPA Government inherited a tax to GDP ratio of 9.2 per cent in 2003-04, which at the end of 2007-08 would stand at 12.5 per cent, the Minister said, “High growth rates may have helped. Changes in attitude have also helped. Above all, information systems and technology have helped most. And, if I may add in a lighter vein, having a lucky Finance Minister may have also helped!”

The Minister may have been handed a slim volume of Indira Gandhi –Selected Sayings, from which he found a “gem” to share with the house, he nonetheless chose to stick to his trademark sign off — a passage from Tamil poet Thiruvalluvar, for “guidance and reassurance.”