A Business Standard report says: "The Union government could target a fiscal deficit of 5.8-6 per cent of nominal GDP for 2023-24, and it should continue its capital expenditure push and look to simplify the personal income tax regime, economists recommended Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and her team during their pre-Budget interaction on Monday."
The report doesn't say what the economists said about how this was to be achieved if, simultaneously, welfare spending would also need to be increased in a pre-election year. The next general election is due in April-May 2024.
Some questions arise from this annual interaction, which
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