<b>A K Bhattacharya:</b> Jaitley's three Budgets

Fiscal deficit reined in, but fall in capex's share in GDP, high reliance on indirect taxes worrying

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present his fourth Union Budget next week. One way to assess the finance minister’s performance so far and understand what he is likely to do in the Budget for 2017-18 is to look at what he has tried to achieve in his last three Budgets. The story that emerges is quite interesting and instructive.

Jaitley’s track record on the fiscal consolidation front is admirable. In spite of pressures on him to stray from the path of fiscal responsibility, he has in each of his three Budgets worked towards reducing the government’s fiscal deficit — from