If it moves, tax it: Desperation creeps into Indian economic policy-making

As with its tax grab, India's desperate focus on short-term fiscal fixes risks doing greater damage in the long term

The government is targeting foreign investors, high-earning employees and companies to plug its fiscal gap. Such overreach never ends well.

Desperation is creeping into India’s economic policy-making. Having lost the fiscal plot, bureaucrats are trying to marshal resources by squeezing taxpayers, foreign investors, firms planning buybacks and even the central bank. Such overreach never ends well.

Tax collections last year were a full 1 percentage point of GDP lower than the 7.9 per cent the government had hoped to obtain. Rathin Roy, director of the New Delhi-based National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, describes the situation as an “unstated