Vote on Account 2014: India not facing a ratings downgrade from agencies

NEW DELHI: In his Vote on Account 2014, also known as the Interim Budget speech, Finance Minister P Chidambaram said that his government has been successfully able to avoid a downgrade of India's credit ratings.

"India is not facing a ratings downgrade from agencies. Our objectives were fiscal consolidation, price stability. Rating agencies have acknowledged our efforts," he said.

Amidst disruptions over the Telangana issue, Chidambaram began his speech by saying, "I shall give you an account of how we navigated the turbulent waters of the Indian economy." "India's economy was able to "outperform other Emerging markets," he said.

Analysts did not expect the FM to unveil many populist measures, given the fiscal constraints under which the government is under.

The budget comes in the backdrop where, growth has come crashing down, the UPA has been hammered by scam after scam and is now staring at a major defeat in the coming elections.

Essentially a vote on accounts supposed to be nothing but a caretaker budget, which keeps the daily government ticking over till the elections are over and a transition of power happens. And the vote to pass the budget is a formality. An FM presents only proposals for expenditure, and that too for the next few months till a new government takes over and presents a bigger, full-fledged budget.