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Fiscal Policy of India from 1991 to 2011

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Fiscal Policy in India (An overview 1991-2011)

Abstract

This essay examines the trajectory of India’s fiscal policy with a focus on historical trends, fiscal discipline frameworks, and fiscal responses to the global financial crisis and subsequent return to a fiscal consolidation path. The initial years of India’s planned development strategy were characterized by a conservative fiscal policy whereby deficits were kept under control. The tax system was geared to transfer resources from the private sector to fund the large public sector driven industrialization process and also cover social welfare schemes. …show more content…

This essay examines the trajectory of India’s fiscal policy with particular focus on historical trends, the development of fiscal discipline frameworks, the recent experience of fiscal response to the global financial crisis and subsequent return to a fiscal consolidation path. The initial years of India’s planned development strategy were characterized by a conservative fiscal policy whereby deficits were kept under control. The tax system was geared to transfer resources from the private sector to fund the large public sector driven industrialization process and also cover social welfare schemes. Indirect taxes were a larger source of revenue than direct taxes. However, growth was anemic and the system was prone to inefficiencies. In the 1980s some attempts were made to reform particular sectors and make some changes in the tax system. But the public debt increased, as did the fiscal deficit. Triggered by higher oil prices and political uncertainties, the balance of payments crisis of 1991 led to economic liberalization. The reform of the tax system commenced with direct taxes increasing their share in

Comparison to indirect taxes. The fiscal deficit was brought under control. When the deficit and debt situation again threatened to go out of control in the early 2000s, fiscal discipline legalizations were instituted at the central level and in

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