"The budget is clean, without too much clutter. We have laid down a reasonably fair and transparent tax regime in which you pay taxes, bring growth and investment," he said at meeting with India Today's board of economists and added, "It will also encourage FDI and FII inflows."

The government's single cause of worry, however, remains outcomes and the delivery mechanism, he said, adding the implementation of programmes outlined in the budget was in the hands of other ministries, state governments and local bodies.

"I am only in charge of delivery of agricultural and industrial credit and will follow the banks to ensure that the targets in these segments are met," he clarified.

Chidambaram said that the finance ministry and planning commission would work out the details for monitoring the implementation of various projects. "I have already met planning commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia for putting in place steps to measure development outcomes. We will see that the ministries deliver," he added.

The budget has to follow the guidelines stipulated in the NCMP, which focuses on agriculture, manufacturing and infrastructure, Chidambaram said, adding it has given a great deal of attention to these areas.

The special purpose vehicle for funding infrastructure sector projects would be in place shortly and "we hope to identify some projects for implementation under the Rs10,000-crore fund," he added.

Chidambaram said the budget has attempted the first major overhaul of the tax system since the last major reform in 1997 and government will soon come out with amendments to both direct and indirect tax laws to simplify them.

"We will introduce bills to amend laws concerning direct and indirect taxes to make them more clutter-free," he said.