Interim Budget: What P Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee, Jaswant Singh Did

Reported by Akhilesh Sharma, Edited by Sandeep Singh

01 Feb 2019, 12:39 AM IST

P Chidambaram was the first finance minister to make significant tax changes in an interim budget

P Chidambaram was the first finance minister to make significant tax changes in an interim budget. (Budget 2019 LIVE Updates)
In his February 17, 2014 speech, Mr Chidambaram stated that the economic situation at the time demanded interventions that could not wait for a regular budget.
In the 2014-15 interim budget, he announced a number of changes to indirect tax laws. These included excise duty cuts on items such as automobiles, mobile phones and industrial oils.
Mr Chidambaram also proposed to exempt loading, unloading, packing and storage of rice from service tax.
Among other changes, Mr Chidambaram accepted the principle of one rank one pension for the defence forces, to be implemented from the next financial year.
However, Mr Chidambaram was not the only finance minister to have announced major changes with financial implications.
In the interim budget for 2009-10, the then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee announced a six-month extension to a 2 per cent interest subvention on shipment credit for employment-oriented sectors. That involved an additional financial outgo of Rs 500 crore.
He also proposed refinancing of up to 60 per cent of commercial bank loans for PPP projects in critical sectors by IIFCL. That involved a total investment of Rs 100,000 crore in infrastructure.
In the interim budget for 2004-05, then finance minister Jaswant Singh proposed to merge 50 per cent of dearness allowance (DA) with basic salary of central government employees (worth Rs 3,500 crore).
He also proposed extension of the Farm Income Insurance Scheme from 20 to 100 districts.