Disinvestments, subdued oil prices: Favourable tailwinds for Arun Jaitley

It would be fair to conclude that disinvestment and oil prices were the major tailwinds that hugely helped Jaitley's budget-making

Looking back at the five Budgets that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has presented so far, it would be fair to conclude that disinvestment and oil prices were the major tailwinds that hugely helped his budget-making. Without the handsome receipts from the sale of government equity in public sector undertakings (PSUs) and sharp increases in excise revenues from oil, Mr Jaitley’s fiscal consolidation drive would have become even more arduous and the journey from a fiscal deficit of 4.4 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2013-14 (the last year of the Manmohan Singh government) to the budgeted 3.3 per