One of the priorities of Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will be to make the budget people-friendly. Rising food prices are pinching everybody and he would like to do his bit to increase purchasing power. Hiking the tax exemption limit might be one of the tax relief measures in this regard.
The Economic Survey has outlined that the fiscal deficit at 4.8 per cent for this year was on track.
Increasing investment in infrastructure has become an exigency and Mukherjee is expected to announce measures such as creation of infrastructure development fund and deepening of corporate bond market.
Steps for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) for infrastructure projects will be priority, however, any major step towards liberalisation of critical areas including FDI in retail would require political acceptance.
He will also outline steps towards Goods and Services Taxation (GST) and Direct Taxes Code (DTC). Changes on both indirect taxes and direct taxes would to be done keeping this in mind. DTC and GST, both, are proposed to be implemented from 2012-2013.