-Livemint.com Taking into account a likely shortfall in revenue and off-budget spending, the real fiscal deficit could be as high as 5.5% of GDP in the current fiscal Mumbai: As India’s economic slowdown has intensified, so has the debate on whether the government should stick to fiscal consolidation or run a higher deficit to push growth in the upcoming budget, due on 1 February. However, data on revenue available so far suggests that...

-The Indian Express In his blog, S C Garg, former Economic Affairs secretary, has claimed that the actual fiscal deficit for the last financial year and the current one is more than a full percentage point higher than the official data. On the face of it, India’s fiscal deficit, which essentially maps how much money the Indian government has to borrow to make up the gap between its expenditure and its revenues,...

-The Hindu Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee says the deficit numbers are a bit imaginary, not a big deal if breached Mumbai: Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee has said that he would not back fiscal tightening in the current economic environment. Prof. Banerjee added that the real constraint to the state of education in the country in the current climate of economic slowdown was not lack of money, but the lack of attention paid to...

-The Indian Express “All ministries have been directed to reduce wasteful expenditure on travel, food and conferences by 20 percent. The CCIG has asked the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, to take necessary action in this regard,” a source told The Sunday Express. In an austerity move, the Union government has decided to reduce wasteful expenditure on items such as travel and food by 20 percent, it is learnt. A decision of...

-The Indian Express CII recommended adoption of an expansionary fiscal policy to allow fiscal deficit to increase by around 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent of GDP, which will give government additional fiscal space of Rs 1.1 lakh crore to Rs 1.6 lakh crore. In a pre-Budget consultation meeting with Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) shared its pre-Budget Memorandum recommendations, focusing on providing impetus...