Note ban distress leaves scant room for giveaways in Budget 2017

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision late last year to scrap high-value bank notes has put his finance minister in a bind ahead of the annual budget next month.

Arun Jaitley is under pressure to offer tax giveaways and step up capital and welfare spending to ease the pain from demonetisation, but the economic disruption caused by Modi's jolt has made forecasting next year's revenue outlook a stab in the dark.

While indirect tax receipts grew by an annual 14.2 percent in December, a slump in consumer spending along with a contraction in services and manufacturing suggest the outlook is anything but rosy.

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