Make or Break Budget at 11 a.m today

NEW DELHI: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will be presenting the Budget for the financial year 2015-16 at 11 a.m today. Amid challenges like fiscal deficit, the budget is expected to announce key reforms around banking, infrastructure etc.

Budget is also likely to give push to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's pet projects -- Make in India, Smart Cities and Swaccha Bharat  among others. The announcements and clarity on the GST implementation roadmap will be one of the most awaited one.

The Economic survey release yesterday itself hinted that GST can play a major role in the revenue generation, which is also a key priority for the government and could possibly be the single largest reform after Independence from British rule in 1947.

Any clarity on the aids state will receive in lieu of their revenue losses and neutral rates will encourage an early GST roll out. GST will simplify the indirect taxes; state taxes like VAT, CST, ET, octroi and entry tax, purchase tax, luxury taxes and central taxes like CVD, service tax and central ED -all will get incorporated in it.

According to the new and much debated formula used to calculate GDP the economic survey pegged the country’s growth for FY’15 at 7.4 percent and expected the Indian economy to grow at 8.1-8.5 percent in the coming fiscal year from the new base year.

So far the effort to portray India as a surging economy has received a lukewarm response and is being viewed with caution. Much talked about economic revival is heavily dependant on public spending. The expectations from this Budget which many expect will be a landmark Budget in the history of India are running very high.