Reuters, New Delhi :
India’s finance minister is likely to borrow more than originally planned when he presents the budget on February 1, senior aides and officials said, despite counting on revenues from a national sales tax whose launch date is still unknown.
Arun Jaitley is looking at how to fund giveaways to taxpayers and higher public investment to help nurse Asia’s third-largest economy back to health after the government’s shock decision in November to abolish high-value banknotes.
That is raising concern among some economists and investors that the government will take too many fiscal risks.
Yet officials say that, given the choice, they would choose growth sustained by state investment over a fiscal straitjacket.
India’s finance minister is likely to borrow more than originally planned when he presents the budget on February 1, senior aides and officials said, despite counting on revenues from a national sales tax whose launch date is still unknown.
Arun Jaitley is looking at how to fund giveaways to taxpayers and higher public investment to help nurse Asia’s third-largest economy back to health after the government’s shock decision in November to abolish high-value banknotes.
That is raising concern among some economists and investors that the government will take too many fiscal risks.
Yet officials say that, given the choice, they would choose growth sustained by state investment over a fiscal straitjacket.
