Budget2015: Fiscal discipline must to improve India's credit rating, say BMR experts

Expensive crude oil never allowed the last UPA government to be at ease with the economy but a comparatively cheaper raw crude isn’t a cause for cheer for the current NDA government at the Centre either.

On 28 February, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will have to make to tough choice whether to contain the widening fiscal deficit or loosen the purse strings to propel growth.

“I think he will stay with the fiscal discipline bit, that he won’t let go off that. So 4.1 percent, 3.6 percent, 3 percent whatever is the trajectory that has been set out he will want to stay with that trajectory for two important reasons. One is that the government wants to work to improve India’s credit rating and that will require fiscal discipline and the other is that they want the Reserve Bank to reduce interest rate. So, both of those things will require discipline to be maintained,” BMR, chief mentor and partner, Bobby Parikh told CNBC-TV18 during a panel discussion.

The government is also keen to disinvest some stake from many public sector firms but there is no guarantee if it can mop up what it has expected from the market.

“Certainly the hope and expectation will be there that not only they will talk about divesting 5-7 percent in some of the large PSUs, they will also come up with a road map of those PSUs which the government wants to privatize in entirety,” said leader, direct tax at BMR, Gokul Chaudhri.

Probable announcements on big ticket financial policies like the Goods and Services Tax are also building up the suspense ahead of the D-day.

“In this Budget particularly on the GST because the key action that needs is on the Constitutional Amendment Bill which is not going to happen on February 28th but you do expect some affirmative statements, some very strong statements to come out. Also you would not want to see any changes in the current structure of indirect taxes which are contrary to GST because that would be a wrong signal. One does expect some changes should be aligned to the GST,” Rajeev Dimri, leader, indirect tax at BMR told CNBC-TV18.