Monday, February 28 2005 14:17 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today (Feb 28, 2005) rated Budget 2005-06 as "outstanding" and credited Finance Minister P Chidambaram for producing a document, which lived up to meet the challenges of the time.

"He has done an outstanding job and worked very hard to produce a Budget, which measures up to the challenges of our time. He deserves all the credit," Singh said.

He described the General Budget for 2005-06 as growth-oriented with focus on rural development and employment generation in line with promises made in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP).

Singh said that the newly-announced 'Bharat Nirman' scheme would change the face of rural India and the Centre would work with State Governments to make life in villages "liveable".

"There must be close cooperation between Centre and the States. The effort will be to work with State Governments to make rural life liveable. When one crore hectares come under irrigation, it will change the face of rural India beyond recognition," he said.

The Prime Minister said that the focus would be on infrastructure development and telephone connectivity in rural areas.

On Chidambaram's proposal to impose a 0.01 per cent tax on withdrawal from banks of Rs 10,000 in one day, Singh said, "I think it is a tax which is not going to impose unnecessary burden on the common man."