Interim Budget 2014: What it reveals
As the nation gears up for the general elections, 2014, the final budget of the outgoing government was presented last month to the 15th Lok Sabha. With the reduction of the Fiscal Deficit in 2013-14 from the earlier estimated level of 4.8 per cent of GDP (in Budget Estimates) to 4.6 per cent of GDP (in Revised Estimates), the government continues to follow its policies of fiscal restraint. However, the ‘fiscal consolidation’ has been achieved solely on the basis of compression of crucial development expenditure as the government’s poor record in stepping up the tax-GDP ratio has persisted in 2013-14.
