-Livemint.com Krishi Kalyan Cess, a 0.5% cess on all taxable services introduced last year to support a drought-hit farm sector, will raise Rs 9,000 crore in 2016-17 New Delhi: Krishi Kalyan Cess, a 0.5% cess on all taxable services introduced last year to support a drought-hit farm sector, will raise Rs 9,000 crore in 2016-17, budget documents presented in the parliament on Wednesday showed. The central government is spending money from this corpus...

-Livemint.com While there have been some positives, including the reforms on political funding, the real test of the budget was the ability to manage spending to revive the economy This was the fourth budget of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Coming at a time when the world around is full of uncertainties, more was expected from the budget than what has been delivered. The domestic uncertainty is certainly the outcome of demonetisation....

-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's public spending on health is about five times lower than the world average, the Economic Survey released today has said, adding the country lacks good models of health care for replication nationwide. The survey, in a section on social sector expenditure trends, has pointed out that the government's annual expenditure on health was 1.2 per cent of the gross domestic product in 2013-14, 1.1 per cent in...

-The Indian Express Post-demonetisation, a reversal of the slowdown would require enhanced public spending. It doesn’t appear to be forthcoming. Given the economic uncertainty around the world and the demonetisation-induced domestic downturn in the Indian economy, preparing this year’s Union budget was never going to be an easy task. But the Modi government seems determined to make its task harder. It has managed to generate expectations — that will almost inevitably remain...

-The Hindu Business Line Economists warn that revenue deficit may breach target New Delhi: Will the Exchequer’s switch to a new classification of expenditure from 2017-18 help lower the revenue deficit and improve the quality of spending? The Finance Ministry believes that shift in classification to revenue and capital expenditure from April 1, departing from the current distinction of Plan and Non-Plan spending, will help it direct expenditure towards productive purposes. It is also...