Last week, the Cabinet gave its go-ahead to the setting up of the 15th Finance Commission (FC). In the past, the mandate of the FC has often been expanded as well. However, UPA II’s attempt to implement the GST never really took off for the failure of the Congress to stitch together a political consensus. Now, with the onset of the GST, the playing field has been completely altered. Already, a front-loading of the expenditure has meant that the government has exhausted 96 per cent of the targeted fiscal deficit.

Source: dna November 29, 2017 01:30 UTC