In an interview with CNBC-TV18's Shereen Bhan, Rathin Roy, Managing Director of Overseas Development Institute, Jayant Sinha, Chairperson of Standing Committee on Finance, Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman of SBI, and Christian De Guzman, Sr VP - Sovereign Risk Group at Moody's Investors Service gave their take on Nirmala Sitharaman's Union Budget.

On fiscal deficit Sinha said as we move out of this pandemic period, out of this crisis period, elevated welfare spending will come down.

“It is cardinally important at this stage to bring down the fiscal deficit and to bring down the fiscal deficit the very elevated expenditure that we had on various support programmes that are required during a once in a century pandemic have to be wound down to some extent. This is why the spending on food has come down, which is why most likely the spending on when MNREGA will also come down.”

For full interview, watch accompanying video...

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First Published:Feb 1, 2022 9:24 PM IST