Finance Minister likely to present an austere budget

Following are highlights of the Economic Survey report as announced by Raghuram Rajan who took over as the top economic advisor in the finance ministry last year:

* GDP growth seen at 6.1-6.7 pct in 2013/14

* India likely to meet fiscal deficit target of 5.3 pct of GDP in 2012/13, despite "significant" shortfall in revenues
* Government target for fiscal deficit is 4.8 pct of GDP in 2013/14
* Government target for fiscal deficit is 3 pct of GDP in 2016/17

Further the finance minister is shortly to present his 8th Budget targeting on reducing the fiscal deficit. In the wake of austerity becoming the norm world over, P Chidambaram is expected to follow suit and not cater to popular sentiment. However with an eye on the general elections to follow in the next year, he may announce a few populist measures.

Meanwhile, analysts have commented that "Last year's budget was a terrible one in terms of sentiment", Reliance AMC: "Don't expect big changes to the tax structure in the Budget".

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