Among the Budgets Nirmala Sitharaman has presented over the past six years, revenue overestimation was a big problem in the Budget for 2019-20, her maiden exercise.
Capital expenditure undertaken hastily to meet year-end targets dilutes the quality of the exercise and undermines the economy's benefits from such investment.
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.
If the fiscal deficit was brought down to 5.6% in 2023-24, it was more because of a cut in revenue expenditure than because of growth in tax collections.
With tax revenue not doing as well as needed, govt has few choices before it: reduce subsidy-led revenue expenditure, cut back on growth-oriented capex, or miss its fiscal deficit target.
The supplementary demands for grants, tabled by FM Nirmala Sitharaman, is over and above the total expenditure of Rs 34.83 lakh crore projected in the Budget for 2021-22.
The proposals, tabled by FM Nirmala Sitharaman, involve net cash outgo of Rs 4.13 lakh crore and remaining amount will be matched by savings of ministries or enhanced receipts
The budgeted expenditure doesn’t account for various schemes & announcements that have been made, such as the increase in MSP or the healthcare coverage scheme.
RJD, once a prominent representative of Mandal politics, now finds itself in a political era where welfare, good governance, and new aspirations are overshadowing old caste equations.
Without a Congress revival, there can be no challenge to the BJP pan-nationally. Modi’s party is growing, and almost entirely at the cost of the Congress.
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