Speaking in the same voice

Would these two take away big chunks of the expectations around the budget, this year? The fiscal numbers for next fiscal have certainly acquired a salience never seen in the run-up to any Indian budget. So the crisp indicators in the Review of the Economy could tell us exactly what to expect before the actual figures are released on February 28.

The bank licences too are possibly the tallest economic reform measure for the UPA-II government other than the roll out of Aadhaar, and certainly the most important in the capital market space. The buzz around them has been enormous as a result and would certainly share more floor space compared with most other Budget announcements.

The similarity of views on the Budget numbers and those in the Review should however be a reason for comfort. Last year the Review by C Rangarajan and his team had made some very prescient diagnosis of the looming fiscal problems, few of which were taken up in the budget showing up the enormous gulf which separated the Prime Minister and the then finance minister’s team. On taxation of cross border transactions the PMEAC had asked for residence-based taxation to

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