NEW DELHI: India's finance minister on Monday boasted he had slashed the fiscal deficit lower than his target, while unveiling a pre-election budget that political

opponents and analysts said contained unrealistic calculations.

Amid uproar in parliament as lawmakers shouted him down, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram also announced tax breaks for struggling manufacturers and more money for defense.

He said he would contain the deficit for the current fiscal year (April-March) at 4.6 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), below his target of 4.8 percent.

Monday's budget was an interim exercise ahead of the election due by May which the government looks sets to lose. Mps will be asked to approve only the period until the new administration takes charge.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, which polls say is best placed to lead a new coalition government after the election, criticized Chidambaram for cutting spending on public investment while increasing outlay on subsidies and pushing Rs.350 billion ($5.64 billion) of oil subsidy spending onto the next administration.

Party president Rajnath Singh warned that cuts of some Rs.798 billion ($12.85 billion) to public investment spending announced for the current fiscal would hurt the economy.

Chidambaram also unveiled lower factory duties for passenger vehicles, washing machines, TVs and mobile phones in a bid to breathe life into spending and the manufacturing sector, which is contracting despite signs of a slow recovery in the wider economy.

Analysts watching the speech welcomed the progress on the fiscal deficit, including his estimate that it would shrink further to 4.1 percent in 2014/15, which would be the lowest since 2007/08. But they voiced concern about a lack of details.

Indian markets were largely unmoved by the speech, with the rupee at 61.93/94 against its close of 61.9250/9350 on Friday, but auto stocks responded to the excise cut, leading a 0.48 percent rise in the benchmark BSE index.

Chidambaram predicted the current account deficit would be contained at $45 billion at the end of March, around half the level at the start of the fiscal year, thanks largely to tight restrictions on gold imports and a recovery in exports.

He said the government was looking into the pros and cons of easing controls on gold imports, but would not let the current account deficit balloon again. To reach his deficit target, Chidambaram this year squeezed higher dividends from cash-rich state-run companies as well as rolling over oil subsidies into next year's accounts.

Revised major subsidies for 2013/14 will be Rs.2.56 trillion ($41.2 billion), Chidambaram said. For the coming year, he estimated total spending of Rs.17.63 trillion, up 10.9 percent against revised expenditure for the current year. Within that, projected capital spending was flat.

Chidambaram said India's economy, the 11th largest in the world, would recover to at least 5.2 percent growth in the second of 2013/14 from 4.6 percent in the first half.