Nirmala Sitharaman is in her fourth year as finance minister. The change in her approach to budgeting, from the somewhat adventurous beginning in 2019 till now, is notable for a growing realism. The start was a trial by fire, with the numbers going badly wrong. Tax revenue fell short by a sharp 18.4 per cent, partly because the economic slowdown had set in even before Covid came, and partly because midway through the year she announced an unprecedented cut in corporate tax rates — prompted, quite obviously, by the prime minister’s visit a few days later to the US, with
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