News Analysis India

Tag: fiscal deficit

  • Last 10 years a ‘Golden Era’ for Northeast: Amit Shah

    Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday said that if the last 10 years in northeast are compared with 75 years after the country’s independence, then this decade will definitely be considered as the golden period of the Northeast.

    He was addressing the 71st plenary session of the North Eastern Council in Shillong. While all the chief ministers and governors of eight northeastern states attended the meeting, Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh skipped it owing to law and situation in his state.

    Shah said that the last 10 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi have been the most significant for the development of the northeast in 75 years since independence. Shah said that the northeast, which was struggling with various ethnic, linguistic, border and extremist group-related problems, has also had the beginning of a fresh and durable era of peace in these 10 years.Shah urged all the states to control the Gross Fiscal Deficit and said that Manipur, Assam, Nagaland and Tripura have made commendable efforts in this direction. The Union home minister said that from 2004 to 2014, a total of 11,121 violent incidents took place in the northeast. It declined by 73% to 3,114 from 2014 to 2023. Deaths among security forces dropped by 71% from 458 to 132, while civilian deaths declined by 86%.

  • India’s Apr-Nov fiscal deficit over 46% of FY22 target

    By IANS

    NEW DELHI: India’s April-November budgetary fiscal deficit has reached 46.2 per cent of the FY22 target.

    As per the data furnished by the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), the fiscal deficit — the difference between revenue and expenditure — for the April-November 2021-22 period stood at Rs 695,614 crore, or 46.2 per cent of the budget estimates (BE).

    The FY22 deficit has been pegged at Rs 15.06 lakh crore.

    Besides, the CGA data showed that the fiscal deficit during the corresponding months of the previous fiscal was 135.1 per cent of that year’s target.

    The Central government’s total expenditure stood at Rs 2,074,607 crore (62.7 per cent of BE) while total receipts were Rs 1,378,993 crore (69.8 per cent of BE).

    ICRA’s Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said: “The GoI’s fiscal deficit compressed to just under Rs 7 trillion in April-November 2021 from Rs 10.8 trillion in April-November 2020, with incremental revenues continuing to sharply outpace expenditure.

    “Although the fiscal deficit upto November 2021 stood at only 46 per cent of the budget estimate (BE) for the full year, the fading hopes of the disinvestment target being met, portend a deficit of Rs 16.5-17 trillion in FY2022, overshooting the budgeted target.”

    Nayar also said that while gross tax revenues displayed a robust growth of 18 per cent in the month of November 2021, the higher release of central tax devolution to the states curtailed the net tax revenues, and thereby enlarged the fiscal deficit for that month.

    India Ratings & Research’s Chief Economist Devendra Kumar Pant said: “Despite excise duty cuts on petrol and diesel in November 2021, gross tax revenue grew 18.2 per cent YoY.”

    “In FY22 (April-November) gross tax revenue grew 50.3 per cent. Tax collection growth will slow down in the rest of FY22 due to high positive growth from October 2020 and despite high inflation moderation in nominal GDP growth.”

  • NDA govt is bankrupt, has undone UPA’s good work, says Congress’ Manish Tiwari

    By PTI
    AHMEDABAD: Congress leader Manish Tiwari on Friday said the NDA government at the Centre had gone “bankrupt” due to a massive “accumulated fiscal deficit” of Rs 32 lakh crore for the fiscals 2019-20 and 2020-21.

    He said the Narendra Modi government, which swept to power promising ‘achhe din’, had ruined the country’s economy and its seven-year rule had seen “the four economic fundamentals comprising investment, employment, savings and consumption falling completely flat”.

    “The UPA government, in its 10 years of rule, worked hard to reduce the fiscal deficit. However, the accumulative fiscal deficit in the NDA regime for 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 is Rs 32 lakh crore. This means the government has gone bankrupt. This government is on the verge of bankruptcy. The UPA government took 27 crore people put of poverty in 10 years, and the NDA in seven years forced 23 crore of these to sink back into poverty,” he said.

    Tiwari said the Union government, which had collected Rs 25 lakh crore as excise duty on petrol and diesel, was trying to run the government from this amount as it had failed to expand the economy.

    “During the UPA government, the average price of crude oil was around Rs 100 per barrel while petrol used to sell at Rs 50. However, under NDA rule, the average price of crude oil has been Rs 50 per barrel but petrol is selling at Rs 100. Inflation has broken the back of citizens. This (economy in tatters) is not just due to COVID-19, but it started with demonetization and faulty implementation of GST,” the Congress leader said.

    He also attacked the Centre over the sedition law, the need of which has been questioned by the Supreme Court recently, by alleging that the Modi dispensation was labeling legitimate dissenters as “anti-national”, “seditious” and even “downright traitor”.

    “The methodology of this government, from the prime minister downwards, is to shoot the messenger instead of listening to the message.

    The manner in which national security laws are being grossly misused to quell legitimate political dissent has now attracted the attention of our constitutional courts.

    The recent Delhi High Court decision regarding three activists (arrested in the Delhi riots case) and yesterday’s questioning of the sedition law are the outcome of gross misuse of national security laws,” Tiwari stated.

    Speaking on Gujarat politics, Tiwari said his party had a fair chance in the 2022 Assembly polls here due to the COVID-19 outbreak and vaccination mismanagement carried out by the Centre and the state government.

    He said the appointment of the state in charge, unit chief and leader of opposition here is the prerogative of the Congress chief.

    While state in charge Rajiv Satav died of post COVID-19 complications, state Congress chief Amit Chavda and leader of opposition Paresh Dhanani had resigned from their posts after the party was drubbed in the local bodies polls held in February this year.