Budget 2020: India is cruising for a bruising
Deccan ChronicleThe Indian economy is currently in an unenviable condition, and if the Budget were any indication, the government has not even fully absorbed the enormity of the crisis. The Indian economy grew at roughly 3.5 per cent in the pre-liberalisation years, 5.4 per cent when the secular coalitions were in power from 1991 to 1998, 5.7 per cent during the Atal Behari Vajpayee years, 8.02 per cent during 10 years of the UPA government, and at 5.5 per cent during the first NDA government’s tenure starting 2014. The economic slowdown was evidenced in the export sector too, with India’s exports contracting for a fifth straight month in December 2019 by 1.8 per cent to $27.36 billion. In fact, a leaked NSSO survey states that India’s overall consumption fell by 3.7 per cent from 2011-12 to 2017-18. And in spite of no increase in expenditure, government finances appear shaky, as was evidenced when the finance minister revised the fiscal deficit target for FY20 to 3.8 per cent up from 3.3 per cent and set a target of 3.5 per cent for the next fiscal.