Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget speech was better than last year’s. It concluded in under two hours, versus one that continued unfinished for two hours and forty minutes. Besides, this speech sounded more coherent and internally consistent compared to the previous one.
Another positive is more commendable. There has been less fudging with the revised estimates (RE) of 2020-21. For instance, at 9.5 per cent of nominal GDP, the fiscal deficit for 2020-21 (RE) is higher than what most commentators had earlier expected; as are the revenue deficit and the primary deficit. If, for instance, the revised fiscal deficit for 2020-21
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