-The Hindu Uday Kotak highlights risks of not spending, says a lot will hinge on States’ approach to reopening. India’s economy urgently needs increased fiscal spending from the government to support businesses that have suffered stress from the COVID-19-related disruptions, as well as households and individuals worst hit by the pandemic, CII president Uday Kotak said on Wednesday. “I think the time has come for the fisc [fiscal authorities] to do a lot...

-The Hindu The government’s announced fiscal policy stance and the fiscal regime it is running seem contradictory There used to be a time — and this was well before India began to globalise — when each Union Budget announced sales tax increases on tobacco products, especially cigarettes. The demand for cigarettes being somewhat inelastic, the rise in tax was expected to be a shot in the arm for the revenue-starved government of...

-The Hindu ‘It moved from a revenue surplus to a Revenue deficit State’ Chennai: Tamil Nadu’s fiscal indicators have deteriorated drastically from 2012-13 to 2018-19 and most borrowings in the recent years have gone to fund its Revenue deficit, instead of capital expenditure, the 15th Finance Commission report tabled in the Parliament recently said. Tamil Nadu moved from a “revenue surplus” to a “Revenue deficit” State after 2012-13, it noted. A Revenue deficit...

-The Indian Express While the government has failed to deliver what was promised through the main budget and subsequent mini-budgets, estimates for next year also point to missed opportunities to use fiscal measures to revive the ailing economy. Expectations from Budget 2021 were high. Unsurprisingly so, for an economy battered by two years of slowdown, with a pre-pandemic annual growth rate of 4 per cent being a decadal low and the subsequent...

-NDTV blog Nirmala Sitharaman said: "We have spent, we have spent and we have spent." She had every reason to claim that, since the budget numbers show that the centre spent ₹ 4.1 lakh crore, or 13 percent above what it had planned for last year. Additional spending will continue this year: expenditure is estimated to go up by 14.5 percent in 2021-2022 compared to last year, even though the government's...