Budget 2017: It’s time Arun Jaitley risked a higher fiscal deficit

The budget will be judged mostly for what it does to put the Indian economy back on the growth track. There are many ideas and propositions doing the rounds; the one I would pick is that of a fiscally expansionist budget. In the upcoming budget, the finance minister should opt for a higher fiscal deficit. It means undoing some of the progress achieved through his previous three budgets — a progressive reduction in both fiscal and revenue deficits that slipped to unviable levels during the second term of the UPA government. The present-day economic context and evidences from the past make a compelling case for the government to loosen its purse strings.