View: Not an unwise sleight of hand in this Budget

A higher fiscal deficit on account of blasé accounting reforms may suggest that the Centre has pumped in an enormous stimulus even as naya paisa laid out is actually minimal.

Synopsis

Budget 2021 could have done more for boosting public investment in agriculture and increasing government spending beyond what is incurred on repaying FCI’s debts. However, a limited increase in custom duties suggests that an ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ is, after all, not an India closed to trade. We have not recouped our globalising march of the 2000s yet. But lack of further regress must be noted.