<b>Abheek Barua:</b> Budget 2017 the hardest one to crack

The Budget could well make or break India's economic recovery

As a card-carrying Budget analyst who has been crunching fiscal numbers for more than two decades, I am a little apprehensive that the forthcoming Budget will turn out to be the hardest one to crack yet. This is essentially for three reasons. For one thing, it comes in the wake of an unprecedented macroeconomic shock — demonetisation.  That in itself might not send it to the top of the complexity list.  We had a Budget that responded to the great financial crisis of 2008. However, the impending introduction of the goods and services tax (GST) muddies the waters a little