While the career bureaucrat-turned-central banker Das was sanguine on government walking the fiscal prudence path-- which was missed three out of the five budgets of the Modi government--Acharya, a trained economist who teaches the subject, pointed to the fiscal slippages as a worry. According to Acharya, this was primarily due to public sector borrowing requirements- which appropriately accounted for extra-budgetary resources and other off-balance sheet borrowings by the Centre and the states. Das said, on the other hand, argued that several public sector units which have their own revenue streams to service their debt and thus can take care of their liabilities. "Borrowings by public sector enterprises are mostly for capex. "Correct economic measurement of the fiscal slippages should factor in the implications of rising public sector borrowings rather than rely solely on the consolidated fiscal deficit figures," Acharya argued.

Source: dna June 25, 2019 01:17 UTC