An insider's take on FRBM report

Extant FRBM legislation focusses on two operational targets, the fiscal deficit and revenue deficit

The government has placed the report of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) review committee (of which I was a member) in the public domain for discussion. This is commendable. It is important that the recommendations of the report, and the grounds on which these are based, be debated and understood by all stakeholders. Fiscal responsibility is a public good; successful implementation of any framework requires consensus on its objectives, and collaboration in its implementation. In this column, I offer my personal take on the reasoning behind the main recommendations.

The report specifies a debt anchor for general government —