Next Mine-Field

Next Mine-Field THE government's fiscal calculations, as presented to the country in the budget for 1991-92, could not have gone more completely awry. The blame has been sought to be placed on the shortfall in receipts from customs duties and the disruption of exports to this country from the former Soviet Union which has required the Indian government to extend large amounts of so-called technical credit, though the first of these developments was by no means unexpected, or even the second. Be that as it may, the rise in net Reserve Bank credit to the central government over the financial year till mid-January was reported to be hovering in the vicinity of Rs 15,000 crore, way above what it should have been as per the budget's figure of Rs 7,719 crore for the end of the financial year. The lack of 'success so far of the government's attempt to bring about macro-economic stabilisation through fiscal and monetary compression is also evident in the monetary expansion of 14.9 per cent during the financial year till January 10 compared to an expansion of 10.7 per cent during the corresponding period of the last financial year