Union Budget 2023-24: Aiming for paradoxical goals

Amish Mehta, MD & CEO, CRISIL, talks about Union Budget 2023

The last full Union Budget of the Narendra Modi government before another battle of hustings attempts to reconcile seemingly irreconcilable goals — fiscal prudence and economic growth, public welfare and private sector incentives, the short term and the long.

While that, in itself, is a bold attempt, how much of it will bear out will depend on how the global geopolitical and economic situations unfold.

There were familiar and unanticipated elements in this Budget.

First, the expected. The Budget has stuck to the fiscal consolidation path.

By targeting a lower fiscal deficit of 5.9 per cent of gross domestic product