While bond yields tend to fall amid low inflation & interest rate cuts, market experts say they’ve been rising due to concerns over tax collections, fiscal deficit & potential impact of US tariffs.
Kerala brought down the deficit for 2022-2023 to under 3 percent, in line with FRBM guidelines, but is still expecting to slightly breach the limit in 2024-2025 and 2025-2026.
Govt has done well to stick to path of fiscal consolidation. It’s unclear if compression of revenue spends net of interest payments is the direction the govt would like to take in coming yrs.
Corporate tax collections saw modest growth of just 1.2%, but a 20.2% rise in income tax collections helped strengthen the government's overall revenue position.
Maharashtra has headroom to spend, but committed expenditure is expected to rise. In Jharkhand, optimistic revenue projections may limit the state govt’s ability to fulfill the promises.
Haryana has seen good growth, keeping its deficit within limit in recent years. Inclusive development, fixing unemployment, bridging rural-urban inflation gap should be new govt’s priorities.
The full budget retains focus on fiscal consolidation. In her budget speech, finance minister mentioned the intent will be to fix fiscal deficit with debt-GDP ratio on a declining path.
The crisis also puts DGCA’s vacancies in the eye of the storm. Naidu told the Rajya Sabha in July this year that 190 out of 410 DGCA vacancies would be filled this year.
Data shows re-alignment in India’s exports, with Tamil Nadu & Telangana posting strong growth in 2024-25 as traditional heavyweights Gujarat & Maharashtra see declines. Gujarat still leads, though.
Of the total package, $649 million will be utilised for additional hardware, software, and support services, and the remaining for Major Defence Equipment (MDE).
Don’t blame misfortune. This is colossal incompetence and insensitivity. So bad, heads would have rolled even in the old PSU-era Indian Airlines and Air India.
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