[ad_1] Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday defended the tax relief measures in the Budget, emphasizing that they primarily benefit middle-income earners. Responding to a debate in the Rajya Sabha, Sitharaman said a closer look at the tax proposals reveals that the maximum benefit applies to those earning up to ₹12 lakh, tapering off as…
[ad_1] Satheesh Vellinezhi | Photo Credit: Satheesh Vellinezhi Too many letters. Oh, and I’m not talking about the Russian alphabet, although it also has way too many letters. I’m talking about modern correspondence in this digital age. (The writer apologises for the loose use of the word letters. Sadly, this writer is forever apologising). In…
[ad_1] For decades, India’s salaried class viewed themselves as a minority—sandwiched between the elite and what they believe is the world’s largest population of the “politically pampered”. And in most Budgets, they found the discourse to be dominated by farmers, the poor, women and other groups. Which is why the record ₹1 trillion largesse showered…
[ad_1] For the upcoming budget year, nominal gross domestic product (GDP) has been projected to grow at 10.1% over the half year-based First Advance Estimate (FAE) for the current year, yielding a budgeted GDP denominator of ₹356.97 trillion for 2025-26. The Second Advance Estimate (SAE) for 2024-25 will soon follow at February-end, and at May-end…
[ad_1] With a new RBI governor at the helm, the MPC will consider the latest information on consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation and GDP growth available since the last meeting. Average headline CPI inflation in the third quarter of 2024-25 at 5.6% was well above the target, though in line with RBI’s baseline estimate. The…
[ad_1] Policymaking is all about trade-offs. The upcoming budget faces an acute policy trade-off between nurturing the fading growth and diminishing fiscal space with challenging debt dynamics. At the same time, renewed uncertainties around global markets and ensuing tighter financial conditions would also weigh on the fiscal reaction function. The role of fiscal policy becomes…
[ad_1] India’s growth outlook has turned less rosy of late, raising expectations around policy support from the Central government, with the Union budget just around the corner. The First Advance Estimates (FAE) for FY25 released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) pegged GDP expansion at 6.4% for the fiscal. To be fair, this will exceed…
[ad_1] At 6.4%, India’s likely growth rate for 2024-25 as estimated by the National Statistics Office, would be lower than not just earlier estimates, but even the recently revised estimate of the central bank. Mint columnist Vivek Kaul has pointed out how non-financial listed companies have struggled to grow net sales by just a percentage…
[ad_1] A decade ago, India was one of the ‘fragile five’ economies, with excessive reliance on foreign capital to sustain growth. Its high vulnerability to foreign capital flight and sudden stops had caused excessive foreign exchange volatility as the current account deficit hit nearly 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012-13. Much water has…
[ad_1] The budget presented on Tuesday is part of that forward-looking continuity. This continuity is anchored in conservative assumptions, given uncertainty (political flux, elevated asset prices and shipping disruptions). As finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s speech states, there are “significant” downside risks for growth and upside risks for inflation (though core inflation is under control). A…
