Some Analytics and Empirics of Fiscal Restructuring in India

The TFC?s focus on growth as a key element of its fiscal reform strategy is well taken. Also eminently sensible are its recommendations for performance budgeting; doing away with the distinction between Plan and non-Plan expenditure; and transparency including elimination of all hidden subsidies. However, the major weakness of the strategy consists of not dovetailing demand management policies in a developmental programme; ignoring the saving-generating impact of investment in an economy where rural and informal sectors are characterised by considerable underutilisation of resources even while the formal sector may not have much slack; treating education, health and other social sector expenditures as current; and absence of optimality considerations in respect of allocation of expenditures and of alternative modes of their financing, taking into account their short- and longer-term effects on growth, equity and government finances.