Populist budget to weigh on next govt, say economists

NEW DELHI : The pre-election budget of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, including handouts for farmers and tax cuts for the lower middle class, is likely to weigh on whoever forms the next administration, economists warned on Friday. The government abandoned its budget deficit target for the next financial year ending March 31, 2020, saying it aimed to come in at 3.4 percent of gross domestic product against an earlier goal of 3.1 percent, as it tries to tackle a rural incomes crisis partly caused by low crop prices. Economists fear some of the assumptions built into the math for those goals are too aggressive especially its forecasts for strong tax revenue growth.