A K Bhattacharya in his column “Get the diagnosis right” (Delhi diary, February 8) unearthed the mismanagement of fiscal planning and control contributing to the rising fiscal deficit. In fact, so alarming is the wide gap between projections and actuals in all parameters of receipts and expenditure that, in retrospect, the budgeted figures appear to be the result of deliberate padding rather than miscalculations — total receipts (minus borrowings) in the three quarters of the year falling short by 16 per cent over the estimated growth of four per cent and total expenditure escalating by 14 per cent against the planned 3.4 per cent. The increase in the latter with plan expenditure going down and non-plan expenditure going up betrays fiscal indiscipline and lack of control. And then the finance ministry takes refuge behind the “myth” (as the author has pointed out) of correlating the slowdown in growth with fiscal deficit. All this under the regime of a financial-wizard prime minister.
Y G Chouksey Pune
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