AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal made her appearance at the Tis Hazari Court in Delhi to have her statement officially documented under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. - Newsx
Updated: February 02, 2021 11:34 am IST
India s annual budget Monday made equity investors ecstatic and the bond market morose. Could both of them be right?
In her speech, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman pegged total government expenditure for the current fiscal year at 34.5 trillion rupees ($472 billion). That s $57 billion more than what analysts had forecast based on a muted April-to-November trend, extrapolated for a bump in December through March, the final four months of the accounting period. But not only is Sitharaman spending much more liberally than expected, she wants to loosen her purse strings by another $5 billion in the next fiscal year.
The equity market is happy for four main reasons. One, there was no major new tax - or an increase in tax rates - to meet the spending goal. Two, even as total outlay goes up by $5 billion, the capital expenditure part, which could create new orders and profit for India Inc., is projected to rise by $15 billion. Third, the finan