Pruning schemes

With government expenditure under squeeze, many central schemes will come under scrutiny and a few of them may be wound up

There is now a broad recognition within the government that its finances are tight and its ability to offer any fiscal stimulus or to increase expenditure is extremely limited. This realisation will, therefore, influence the package of measures the government wishes to announce in the coming weeks to revive the economy.

The government’s unaudited provisional accounts for the first quarter of the current financial year show that its gross tax revenues grew by just 1.3 per cent over the same period of 2018-19. This is woefully short of the full year’s gross tax revenue growth target of about 18 per cent,