Fiscal focus

Govt must aim for faster consolidation

The National Statistical Office last week released the first advance estimates of national income for the ongoing fiscal year, 2022-23. This is a vitally important data release because these estimates form the basis for the process of designing the Union Budget, which is due to be presented at the beginning of next month. Real growth in the ongoing fiscal year is expected to be 7 per cent, year-on-year, according to these estimates. This is not exactly cause for celebration, because the economy in 2021-22 was still recovering from pandemic-induced disruptions. It is worth noting that, for example, although manufacturing grew