The government had breached its fiscal deficit target given in the Budget for 2017-18 in November itself, touching 112 per cent of the limit.
The bulk of states' revenue comes from the devolution from the Centre's divisible tax pool, GST, VAT on petroleum, and excise duty on alcohol.
The challenge before the government now is to use the factors that are favourable to its benefit.
This is Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee's fourth regular Budget.
The decline in gold imports has helped in narrowing the country's trade deficit to $106.84 billion during the eight-month period under review as against $133.74 billion in the year-ago months.
'But can it afford to present a scenario within the existing legal framework of fiscal consolidation?', asks A K Bhattacharya.
President appealed to Congress to pass the budget while pushing Republicans to agree to hike the borrowing limit.
The income tax department estimates total collection to be between Rs 10.5 trillion and Rs 10.7 trillion against the revised target of Rs 11.7 trillion.
US President Barack Obama has stepped up his personal engagement with lawmakers over the government shutdown, which the White House hoped would help in resolving the current economic crisis including the one of raising the debt ceiling by October 17.
The oil sector has been quite lucky for the Modi government. It has often provided an opportunity to the government to mend its finances, notes A K Bhattacharya.
S&P has maintained a stable outlook on the basis of their expectation that over the next two years the growth will remain strong and India will maintain its sound net external position and fiscal deficit will remain elevated but broadly in line with their forecast.
Lionel Messi's picture was on the front pages rather than the sports sections of the Spanish media on Thursday, after the World Player of the Year and his father were accused of tax fraud.
According to the data of the commerce ministry, in 2018-19, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at $87.95 billion. During the period, India's two-way commerce with China aggregated at $87.07 billion.
While there has been a rash of growth estimate cuts, including a 0.70 percentage point reduction by the RBI last month to 6.1 per cent, the Japanese brokerage's estimate is so far the lowest.
The Barclays' report also said that the effort to reduce fiscal deficit through austerity measures is weighing on growth.
Twelve of the 36 meteorological subdivisions recorded deficient rainfall, while the rest witnessed normal to excess rain. In total, 38 per cent of the 662 districts received below-normal rain.
Wants to tax the rich higher.
Sitharaman's Budget missed deficit target for the third year in a row, pushing shortfall to 3.8 per cent of GDP in the current fiscal as compared to 3.3 per cent previously planned.
Any reduction in devolution could aggravate the strained relations between the Centre and some opposition-ruled states on a number of issues, including CAA.
Say Washington wasted an opportunity to address the nation's long-term debt.
May help US steer clear of recession, although enough austerity would remain in place to likely keep economy growing at lackluster pace.
Sources said much has been done to ease the tax burden of the middle classes in the last five years, and that such a measure affects only a limited segment of people when the focus should be to put money in rural areas. Archis Mohan reports.
The long, bumpy road to America's "fiscal cliff" has been traveled over many years by Congress and a series of U.S. presidents, including Barack Obama.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday termed the budgetary proposals for 2007-08 as anti-inflationary, which aimed to control prices through reduction in excise duty on many items.
The EPF Board on Saturday failed to clinch the contentious issue of interest rate for the current fiscal for its four crore subscribers and rejected finance ministry's proposal to invest 5 per cent of the EPF money in the equity market.
Republicans immediately pounced on the new debt figure to push their candidate Mitt Romney to the White House.
While efforts are being mounted on a war footing to arrest its spread, COVID-19 will impact economic activity in India directly through domestic lockdown. The second-round effects, it said, would operate through a severe slowdown in global trade and growth.
IThe fiscal deficit target for 2020-2021 was originally set at 3.5 per cent of GDP. But the government's revenues have collapsed and its expenditure burden will only increase over the Budget estimates.' With the government having already planned for an additional borrowing of over Rs 4 trillion, the fiscal deficit for the current year would be much higher than the Budget estimate, notes A K Bhattacharya.
Ahead of the Budget exercise, which is set to begin on Wednesday, Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday hinted at further moderation in tax rates, deepening of reforms and cut in wasteful expenditure.
The minutes of the December MPC meet reveal members felt the current spike in the headline inflation rate was due to a temporary supply shock on the food front, expected to moderate by the second quarter of 2020-21.
"The Monetary Policy Committee recognises that there is monetary policy space for future action. However, given the evolving growth-inflation dynamics, the MPC felt it appropriate to take a pause at this juncture," the RBI said in its fifth bi-monthly monetary policy for this fiscal.
The brokerage said the consolidated fiscal deficit, including that of the Union (3.6 per cent), the states (2.6 per cent) and the off-budget borrowings which are being resorted to increasingly is a worry.
Gold, forex assets, IT sector, pharma. Devangshu Datta explains why each of these is a good hedge against market shocks at this time.
A political floor fight is expected over the budget package that has provisions to make available thousands of green cards for new permanent immigrants.
Rating agency Fitch on Thursday affirmed India's foreign and local currency ratings at 'BB+'
Gold price is likely to remain sideways this week due to uncertainty in global economy. The metal, of late, has started losing its status as safe haven investment avenue at the time of global economic crisis.
At a time when major economies have increased spending, India will have to do the same.
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