Revenue Foregone Estimates

For delivering benefi ts to a citizen of the country, the government can choose to adopt an expenditure programme or it can provide a tax concession or exemption. While the former is captured in detail in the budget-making exercise, the latter is not. This is the genesis of the attempts to measure the impact of tax provisions. In India, the government has been publishing a revenue foregone statement since the 2006-07 Union Budget. While there is some discussion on the revenue foregone statement as highlighting the giveaways by the government, this article draws attention to the limitations with the data presented - both in terms of provisions that are included and those that are excluded.