He defended the lower allocation in the social sector saying the centre was focussing on the outcome, and while in the budget allocation was lower, the money in the hands of the beneficiary has doubled, without any leakage.
“The budget has maintained fiscal balance… we have kept both revenue deficit and fiscal deficit low,” Nageswaran said. He was speaking at a post budget interaction organised by leading economists from National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), Centre for Policy Research (CPR), India Development Foundation (IDF) and the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP).
“Payments to micro, small, and medium enterprises become eligible for expense deduction by buyers only after the payments have been made. Day to day, people spend a lot of time on these things. Those have been addressed in the budget,” Nageswaran said.