It was a bold budget. P Chidambaram's in 1997. If one remembers that his predecessors also suffered the disabilities of a party leading the government not enjoying a majority, there is scope for Sinha pushing through the bold reforms he has proposed.
Industry is understandably euphoric.
Business leaders have freely admitted they couldn't have asked for more. While CII's Tarun Das liberally provided nine out of ten for Sinha's budget, there were a few who even awarded ten out of ten. So expectations were modest. With government expenditure ballooning with little control over big tickets like interest payments, major subsidies, defense, salaries and pensions of government employees and with revenues not increasing at a rapid rate, the government had to resort to increasing quantum of borrowing. Another Rs.112,000 crore was borrowed during the year to meet with essential expenditure.