Budget 2019 glossary: A layman's guide to understanding key terms

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present the much-awaited Union Budget 2019 on July 5. Since the NDA government has returned to power, new finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will announce the final annual report on expenditure and revenue plans for the financial year during her budget address. People often fail to understand key terms such as inflation, fiscal deficit, capital expenditure, revenue receipts, surplus budget, deficit budget, divestment, bad loans, balanced budget, and many more. A balanced budget, surplus budget and deficit budget A balanced budget is equivalent to an idealistic financial statement where the government’s estimated expenditure is equal to the revenue receipts in a financial year. Last but not least, a deficit budget denotes the situation where the estimated government expenditure exceeds the expected revenue receipts for a particular financial year.