India 2016 budget seeks balance

Government seeks to put revenue, expenditure and taxation on par

Important to understand constraints of the government. Should we tax more, spend less or borrow more?

Jayant Sinha, Indian Minister of State for Finance

Ahead of the national budget for the next fiscal, Indian Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha on Saturday said it was necessary to balance what the government manages to get as revenue, its spending and how much money it can raise from the market.

“Important to understand constraints of the government. Should we tax more, spend less or borrow more? Careful balance needed,” Sinha tweeted.

He also attached a table, which showed the government expenditure for the fiscal year 2015-16 at Rs17.8 lakh crore, the tax receipts at 12.2 lakh crore and a borrowing of Rs5.6 lakh crore to meet the deficit.

“Analogy: A household that has an annual income of Rs100, spending Rs146, leading to borrowings of Rs46 every year,” he said, adding: “Question: Should we earn [tax] more, spend less or borrow more?”

Earlier, in a post on Youtube, he said the uplift of the poor, progress of farmers and employment for youth would be the focus of the upcoming budget, which is due to be presented in the Lok Sabha, the upper house of parliament, on February 29.

“This will be a forwardlooking budget that will ensure that India will continue to be a haven of stability and growth in a very turbulent and choppy global environment,” the minister of state said.

He had also tweeted on Friday that the present government has managed to keep prices in check. “The NDA government has been successful in containing inflation,” he said, adding this was far less than the inflation experienced during the previous UPA regime.

Earlier, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke about making arrangements for tax payers. The use of technology has gone a long way in helping taxpayers, with 14 million assessees notified and paid their refunds using this medium, Jaitley said ahead of the budget presentation for the next fiscal year.

“The government has been increasingly using technology for the advantage of all tax payers and 14 million, that is assessees, have been notified of their refunds. Refunds have been given to them using this medium,” he said.