Mr. Pranab Mukherjee said it was the earnest desire of the government to give effect to Direct Tax Code from April 2012. However, the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee was received only on the 9th of this month. He said the government will examine the report speedily an d take steps for enactment of Direct Tax Code soon.

Similarly he said the government is awaiting the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing committee which is going through the goods and Services Taxes, GST. He said that disinvestment is proposed to be pegged at 30 thousand crore rupees for the coming year. Mukherjee also proposed to table a White Paper on black money in the current session of parliament.

To deepen reforms in capital market the budget proposes to allow Qualified Foreign Investors access Indian Corporate Bond market. Initial Public Offers, IPOs, process will be simplified and it will be mandatory for companies to issue IPOs of ten crore rupees and above in electronic form through nationwide broker network of stock exchanges.

Habitations with the population of more than one thousand in the North Eastern and hilly states will be covered under “Swabhimaan” for providing banking facilities.

Considering the year 2012 marking the beginning of Indian Cinema Centenary year, the budget proposed to exempt the Industry from service tax on copyrights for recording of cinematographic films.

The budget proposes to peg the fiscal deficit to 5.1 per cent of the GDP against the current fiscal's of 5.9 per cent. It shows a revenue deficit of one lakh 85 thousand 752 crore rupees, representing 1.8 per cent of GDP.

The Finance Minister also presented the Finance Bill after presenting the budget.