Jaitley should contain fiscal deficit in Budget 2018: Noted economist

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley should try to achieve the fiscal deficit target and take more steps to implement projects efficiently in the forthcoming Budget, noted US-based economist T N Srinivasan has suggested.

Srinivasan, the Samuel C Park Jr Professor Emeritus of Economics at Yale University, further said there is no economic theory to link job losses to demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

"I expect him to contain the fiscal deficit as far as he can, take further steps to implement projects efficiently and on time," he told PTI.

The government is aiming to contain fiscal deficit for the current fiscal at 3.2 per cent of GDP.

Jaitley is scheduled to present the Union Budget for 2018-19 on February 1.

Asked to comment on concerns in India about job losses due to demonetisation and GST rollout, Srinivasan, who at one point taught RBI Governor Urjit Patel, said, "There is no economic theory linking the two.