More than half of the total subsidy provisioning, amounting to 54 per cent, is going towards food subsidy, which is estimated at Rs 184,220 crore for 2019-20 - a 7.5 per cent increase over the revised estimates for 2018-19.
It is possible that the Centre has now become wiser and has decided to follow an allocation system which gives it more from Integrated GST and helps boost its revenues, says A K Bhattacharya.
Long-term funding was a requirement for infrastructure projects, and asset-liability mismatch in the banking system, impacts the access to finance for infrastructure projects. One of the key challenges would, however, be to get private sector back into investing.
A political party's manifesto is the first stage of building a compact with the voters in any governance plan. If that compact is dependent on a document that reeks of fiscal imprudence and lacks credibility, it is a serious setback to the country's democracy and governance, says A K Bhattacharya.
Modi government's story of five years with regard to equity allocation for PSUs shows that it may have allowed a large part of its resources to be wasted. This is also a worrying reflection of the government's inability to take hard decisions - whether they pertain to privatisation or forcing weak public-sector banks to wind down their operations, says A K Bhattacharya.
While the five years of the Modi government have indeed seen a healthy increase in PSUs' outlay and the Budgetary support for them, the next year's numbers reveal the squeeze in the government's own resources even though it is expecting a much higher dividend income from the PSUs. These do not augur well for the PSUs in 2019-20 and the years ahead, unless these numbers are revisited and, hopefully, revised in the full Budget that will be presented later in July this year, says A K Bhattacharya.
While the five years of the Modi government have indeed seen a healthy increase in PSUs' outlay and the Budgetary support for them, the next year's numbers reveal the squeeze in the government's own resources even though it is expecting a much higher dividend income from the PSUs. These do not augur well for the PSUs in 2019-20 and the years ahead, unless these numbers are revisited and, hopefully, revised in the full Budget that will be presented later in July this year, says A K Bhattacharya.
'A sum of Rs 6,000 a year is very significant for a small farmer whose land holding is very small and whose produce is very small. All these calculations on a daily basis are extremely unfortunate and an insult to farmers.'
Forget about interim Budgets, one cannot easily recall even a full Budget of any government in recent times having rolled out benefits of this order to such a large number of people, says A K Bhattacharya.
The President's address to Parliament on January 31 will contain the government's report card on the state of the economy, and will be no less important than the interim Budget announcements, says A K Bhattacharya.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that the states were free to announce farm loan waivers if they had the fiscal space and that there would be no shortfall this year in divestment and non-tax revenues.
'The BJP leadership and its agriculture minister must make up their mind on what kind of corrective measures will be needed for Indian agriculture at this point in time.' 'The sooner Mr Singh provides policy clarity on this vital issue, the better are the chances of India's agriculture and farmers emerging out of their current mess,' says A K Bhattacharya.
'It is likely the government may opt for an IAS officer.' 'For the government, an IAS officer will be more easy to deal with,' notes A K Bhattacharya.
A K Bhattacharya lists three reasons why Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will most likely present a full Budget on February 1, 2019.
The use of Section 7 is fraught with risks to the autonomy of the central bank, the credibility of the government and the smooth functioning of the financial markets, says A K Bhattacharya.
Son's offer to supply free power after 25 years is based on the idea that the cost of running a solar plant would progressively decline while its efficiency would increase.
There is as yet no clarity on how the process of consulting with the RBI Governor, initiated under Section 7 of the RBI Act, would unfold in the coming days. The government is keen that its suggestions made in the public interest should be heeded by the central bank, says A K Bhattacharya.
The Indian economy's election-year syndrome cannot be ignored, says A K Bhattacharya.
The reason for digital and IT interventions increasingly being adopted is not just the change in ways commuters move but also the mode on which this transport moves, says Jyoti Mukul.
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