Budget speech 2006-07: Full text

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II IMPLEMENTING THE NCMP MANDATE

6. Our success this year is due to our unrelenting emphasis on fiscal prudence through enhanced revenues and expenditure control, monetary stability and management of the external debt. However, our success should not tempt us to stray from this path, and we shall not do so.

7. One of the important NCMP obligations was to focus on agriculture: we have done so, and the output of food grains is expected to be 209.3 million tonnes, which is about 5 million tonnes more than in the previous year.

8. The NCMP mandates the Government to promote employment: while creating permanent and quality jobs in the productive sectors, for providing immediate relief to the poor, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme was launched on February 2, 2006. In the current year, under a clutch of schemes including the Food for Work programme, a sum of Rs.11,700 crore is expected to be spent on rural employment.

9. The NCMP mandates the Government to enhance investment: the investment rate has increased steadily from 25.3 per cent in 2002-03 to 30.1 per cent in 2004-05. Several indicators point to continued buoyancy of capital formation in the economy.

10. The NCMP also mandates the Government to augment infrastructure. 5,083 MW of capacity will be added to power generation in 2005-06, and during the Tenth Plan period the total addition is estimated at 34,000 MW, which is a record. Until December, 2005, under the Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana, contracts have been placed for projects spanning 95 districts and covering 41,461 un-electrified and 9,379 electrified villages. Work is on at full steam on the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) and the North-South, East-West Corridors. As against 1.86 kms per day completed prior to May, 2004, the schemes are progressing at the rate of 4.48 kms per day. 96 per cent of the GQ will be completed by June, 2006 and the Corridors will be completed by end 2008. There is also substantial and visible progress in improving our ports, airports and rural roads.

11. As the year draws to a close, I look back with satisfaction that the promises we made to the common citizen – the aam admi – have been substantially redeemed.

III BHARAT NIRMAN

12. I would like to make special mention of Bharat Nirman. It epitomizes the UPA’s approach to governance. It is a paradigm shift that will enable us to use the resources thrown up by the engine of growth for building infrastructure and bringing basic amenities to rural India. Honourable Members are aware of the six components of Bharat Nirman and the ambitious targets to be achieved by the year 2009. In the first year of its implementation, 2005-06: