This Budget's focus should be on expenditure, not taxation: Pronab Sen

Revival in capex in the non-corporate sector, which is our MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprises) sector, is beginning now

As the Budget is about 20 days away, former chief statistician Pronab Sen tells Indivjal Dhasmana the government should go for fiscal consolidation and not the way prescribed in the documents presented along with the Budget for 2022-23. The documents wanted the government to cut the Centre’s fiscal deficit to below 4.5 per cent of GDP by 2024-25 from the expected 6.4 per cent in this fiscal year. Sen suggests it should rather be cut by around 0.6 per cent of GDP a year. Edited excerpts:

With economic growth slowly recovering, should the Budget focus on continuing government capex, or