``If his fiscal deficit is not inflationary, why is mine? If everything he did was virtuous, why is everything I do vicious?'' Sinha argued in the Lok Sabha while replying to the Finance Bill, stating that he had not reversed any of the reform-oriented policies of the past seven years such as lowering taxes, or curbing expenditures.

Sinha's total tax give-aways today, though immensely popular with the House which passed the finance bill, add up to just around Rs 263 crore. Unlike the last time around when he introduced the Budget, Sinha, however, didn't give in on his major revenue-earning proposals today the 4 per cent special additional duty (SAD) on imports and the proposalto reduce the amount of tax that could be written off under Modvat.

He had, during the reply to the budget speech on June 12, reversed the urea price hike and halved the special import duty of 8 per cent. As was expected, especially following the Standing Committee on Finance's recommendations on the budget, Sinha withdrew most of his budget proposals which affected the common man and had come in for a great deal of flak earlier. So, no more taxes on mithais, namkeens, branded spices, spectacles lenses, tea in small packets less than 100 grammes, or milk products.

And for those who feared that the tax-widening scheme which required citing your Permanent Account Number (PAN) for things like opening a bank account would hit them, Sinha assured Parliament that this would not be necessary. If a person didn't have a PAN, all that he would have to do would be to fill a simple declaration to this effect.