Best of BS Opinion: A steep fiscal correction, a strategy for GST, and more

Here's a selection of Business Standard opinion pieces for the day

The finance minister, in the Budget speech, had promised that the new DFI would be professionally managed. This was interpreted by most observers to indicate it would have a large, preferably a controlling, share for the private sector and the management would be selected accordingly. However, it now transpires that the state-controlled India Infrastructure Finance Company (IIFCL) will serve as the seed for the new DFI. In this context, our lead editorial notes that a bail-out of IIFCL and a renaming, alongside a line of credit that will probably allow the new institution to repeat the mistakes of the old. It is hard to see how and why any private-sector pool of long-term capital would want to go into business with such an institution.
 

With modest revenue effort, the burden of cutting the fiscal deficit will fall on a big expenditure contraction, writes AK Bhattacharya
 

In Covid-19 times, with growth stalling, GST revenue augmentation has to naturally look at better compliance. The measures to improve this through streamlining the registration system, universalisation of E-invoicing and building up skill levels, among the commercial tax officers, could nudge GST collection to a higher normal, writes former member of Central Board of Indirect Taxes & Customs VS Krishnan

Quote

“As many as 197 people are missing while 20 people have died due to floods in Uttarakhand”

Union Home Minister Amit Shah