Parliament Diary

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget in Parliament today. 

Some highlights from our analysis:

• Expenditure: The government proposes to spend Rs 20,42,230 crore in 2020-21, which is 12.7% higher than the revised estimate of 2019-20.  
   
• Receipts: The receipts (other than net borrowings) are expected to increase by 16.3% to Rs 22,45,893 crore, owing to higher estimated revenue from disinvestments.  
   
• GDP growth: The government has assumed a nominal GDP growth rate of 10% (i.e., real growth plus inflation) in 2020-21. The nominal growth estimate for 2019-20 was 12%.  
   
• Deficits: Revenue deficit is targeted at 2.7% of GDP, which is higher than the revised estimate of 2.4% in 2019-20. Fiscal deficit is targeted at 3.5% of GDP, lower than the revised estimate of 3.8% in 2019-20. Note that the government is estimated to breach its budgeted target for fiscal deficit (3.3%) in 2019-20 and the medium term fiscal target of 3% in 2020-21. This does not include off budget borrowing (0.9% of GDP).  
   
• Ministry allocations: Among the top 13 ministries with the highest allocations, the highest percentage increase is observed in the Ministry of Communication (129%), followed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare (30%) and Ministry of Home Affairs (20%).

More here: [ ]
 

Separately, the legislative agenda before the two houses of Parliament for the Budget Session has been made available. Our Session Alert gives details of the Bills that the government intends to take up during the session. For Bills pending in Parliament, the alert contains a brief introduction about the Bill and details like date of introduction and the stage of the legislative process it is at. 

[ ]