Sitharaman as FM: Some positive surprises, a few works in progress

Tax, revenue and macroeconomic trends are encouraging, but more needs to be done on privatisation, clean-up of banking mess, anti-protectionism, and de-politicisation of govt bodies, writes T N Ninan

Nirmala Sitharaman is proving to be a better finance minister than her initial rookie status might have led people to expect. She started off on the wrong foot, saddled as she was with the unrealistic Budget numbers presented in the 2019 Interim Budget by her predecessor, and by the fudging of the books that hid the real picture. As a first task, she has done a clean-up act: Expenditure that was off the books has been brought into the Budget, and tax refunds now come with a speed and regularity that would have surprised many taxpayers. Budgeting has become a