The fifth Budget

The fifth Budget will be fundamentally different from previous ones and will be quite unique

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far presented four Union Budgets. Its fifth Budget, however, will be fundamentally different from the previous ones and will be quite unique. There are many reasons for it being so, but the primary one is the roll-out of the goods and services tax (GST) from July 1, 2017. 

How will the GST make such a big difference? Remember that the central excise duty and service tax account for almost 35 per cent of the Union government’s gross tax revenues. Now, both these taxes have been subsumed under the