Imbalances in the fiscal deficit debate

While criticising the fiscal deficit target in the FRBM Act, the commentariat ignores the fact that the legislation also stipulated a stiffer revenue deficit target

As someone who introduced the concept of fiscal deficit for the first time in the interim Budget of 1991 and later as finance minister in the Vajpayee government and also prepared the legislation for controlling the fiscal deficit, I have followed the recent debate in the media and read with interest T N Ninan’s article on the subject (“No virtue in stipulating 3%”, October 5).

The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Bill was passed by Parliament after I had moved to the external affairs ministry and Jaswant Singh had taken charge of the finance ministry. The Act was