Financial secrecy deprives countries, especially developing ones, of key revenue resources by eroding their tax base. India must thus build a robust legal system to lift the veil of secrecy on both onshore and offshore financing.

Concerns are being expressed over important economic decisions being taken outside the process of budget formulation.

A long-term policy on teachers’ appointment and teacher’s training, backed by increased spending, is needed.

Without adequate central funding for the schemes for women’s safety in the Budget, implementation will suffer.

A push to the rural and digital economy but not much for the rest

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA), one of the flagship programme’s of the government, has heralded a change in the sphere of sanitation programmes in the country. Though India has made strides in improving sanitations standards, the dismal sanitation statistics for both rural and urban areas still leave much to be desired.

राजस्व बढ़ाने के साथ ही संसाधनों के प्रभंधन का प्रयोग

The Union Budget 2017-18 tabled in Parliament yesterday was one of many firsts. The Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley began his speech on taxation by acknowledging that the country’s tax-GDP ratio, as well as the direct-indirect tax ratio are lower than optimal.

Hardly anybody would quibble over the fact that rural India has been severely impacted with the sluggish agricultural activities and other means of livelihood in the post-demonetization phase. Some of the important measures being implemented for the rural economy, particularly for the agriculture sector, include, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Krishi Sinchai Yojana, Long-term corpus fund for Irrigation with NABARD etc.

The Plan and Non-Plan expenditure heads created distrotions in developmental funding which seek resolution.

The Union Budget assumes greater significance this year as it is all set to announce several structural shifts. The new system of budgeting will usher in a slew of changes like moving the presentation date to 1 February, in departure from the convention of the last working day of February; dropping the distinction between Plan and Non-plan; and merging the Railway Budget with the General Budget.

The Constitution of India does not mention any specific date or day for presentation of the Union Government’s budget in Parliament. However, as a convention, the Budget used to be presented in Lok Sabha on the last working day of February every year.