HFCs: MORE
P.16 POWER TO RBI
DRUG SALES:
P.14 SLOWING GROWTHTHE Securities and Exchange
Board of India (Sebi) is miffed
at the Budget proposal for
transferring 25 per cent of its surplus
funds to central government coffers.
The government is desperate to augment
revenues as it has been struggling to meet
its fiscal deficit targets in recent years. The Centre’s
fiscal deficit target for 2017/18 was budgeted at 3.2 per cent
of GDP, but went up to 3.5 per cent. The target for 2018/19 was 3.
per cent of GDP, but is expected to be 3.4 per cent now. The reason
for the slippage was shortfall in revenues while expenses increased.
The Budget document reveals that for 2018/19, fiscal deficit
and revenue deficit are 103 per cent and 107 per cent of the Budget
Estimate, respectively. In 2018/19, the government had estimated
a 16.7 per cent increase in its gross tax revenue over the previous
year, but the increase is now estimated to be only 8.4 per cent. The
deficit would have been much larger if some key expenses were
not funded through extra budgetary resources (up from `15,
crore in 2017/18 to `64,192 crore in 2018/19). Despite accounting
for a larger share of dividends and profits from institutions like
Reserve Bank of India and other public sector enterprises (up
from `122,474.01 crore in 2018/19 to `177,239.67 in 2019/20),
the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP set for 2019/
also seems to be a daunting task. Hence, the push to get Sebi part
with its surplus funds. The institution will complain of curbs on
financial autonomy, but the government is unlikely to relent.
@joecmathewTENANCY ACT: A
P.12 LONG HAUL AHEAD
` (^64)
, (^192)
CRORE
AMOUNT (^) R
THROUGH AISED
(^) EXTRA-BU
ARY (^) RESO DGET-
URCES IN
(^2018) / 19
FINANCES
BALANCING
ACT
THE GOVERNMENT'S
MOVE TO NOW TAP
SEBI'S SURPLUS FUNDS
SHOWS IT IS NOT
CONFIDENT ABOUT
MEETING TAX TARGETS.
By JOE C. MATHEW
Illustration by NILANJAN DAS