Balancing Act

The government's move to now tap SEBI's surplus funds shows it is not confident about meeting tax targets.

- Joe C. Mathew

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is miffed at the Budget proposal for transferring 25 per cent of its surplus funds to central government coffers. The government is desperate to augment revenues as it has been struggling to meet its fiscal deficit targets in recent years. The Centre’s fiscal deficit target for 2017/18 was budgeted at 3.2 per cent of GDP, but went up to 3.5 per cent. The target for 2018/19 was 3.3 per cent of GDP, but is