India weathered economic crisis: Mukherjee

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that though the Indian economy faced grave uncertainty in 2009, it has weathered the crisis and the economic position of the country is far better than last year.

Presenting the Union Budget for the financial year 2010-11, Mukherjee said the GDP growth is expected to breach 9 per cent in 2011-12 and it is expected to be higher by 1 per cent over 2009-10.

The worst is over for the Indian economy after two hard years and the country will return to a high growth path with renewed confidence and even log double-digit expansion, said the Finance Minister. However, India faces challenges of reverting to double digit growth, said Mukherjee.

Observing that the economy stabilized in the first quarter of 2009-10 the minister said there was strong rebound in second quarter. Overall growth at 7.2 and could be higher when Q3 and Q4 are taken into account. 

They Governemnt has proposed to continue invest in special economic zones (SEZ) as SEZ saw 127 per cent growth in the previous financial year and have attracted investments. Focus on employment opportunities as well in SEZs.

Mukherjee also said the government is committed to SEZs to promote exports.

 Two more computerized centers on IT returns

During the announcement of Union Budget today, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the Government would continue the path of computerisation in core areas of service delivery in the administration of direct taxes.

The initiative would reduce the physical interface between taxpayers and tax administration and speed up procedures and processes. The Centralised Processing Center at Bangalore is now fully functional and is processing around 20,000 returns daily. This initiative will be taken forward by setting up two more centers during the year.

The government also said that it would launch citizen-centric governance project in Pune, Kochi, and Chandigarh.