Primary deficit is obtained by subtracting which of the following from the fiscal deficit?
- A.Interest payments
- B.Subsidies
- C.Defence expenditure
- D.Grants for creation of capital assets
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, interest payments. Primary deficit equals fiscal deficit minus interest payments. Interest is the cost of borrowings made in earlier years, so removing it leaves the borrowing that the present year's policies alone make necessary. A country may therefore run a large fiscal deficit and a very small primary deficit if most of its borrowing goes to service old debt.
Option B, subsidies, is a component of revenue expenditure and is never subtracted to produce a defined deficit measure. Option C, defence expenditure, is likewise an ordinary head of spending and has no special place in any deficit formula. Option D, grants for the creation of capital assets, is subtracted from the revenue deficit, not from the fiscal deficit, and the result of that subtraction is the effective revenue deficit.
Read the full article: Union Budget and Fiscal Policy: Deficits, Articles and PYQs
Practice Questions
View allWhich of the following items is included in the capital receipts of the Indian Budget?
- A.Commercial revenue
- B.Interest received
- C.Issuance of treasury bills
- D.Dividends and profits
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A receipt is capital if it either creates a liability for the government or reduces an asset it holds.
Read the full explanation →Which of the following is India's first Paperless Budget?
- A.Union Budget 2021-22
- B.Union Budget 2019-20
- C.Union Budget 2020-21
- D.Union Budget 2018-19
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It was the first union budget in India not to be printed.
Read the full explanation →As per Union Budget 2021-22, Fiscal deficit is estimated at ______ per cent of GDP in 2021-22.
- A.5.1
- B.7.6
- C.6.8
- D.7.2
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The budget estimate for the fiscal deficit of the central government in 2021-22 was placed at 6.8 per cent of gross domestic product.
Read the full explanation →The Contingency Fund of India is to be augmented from Rs. 500 crores to _________ crores through the Finance Bill as per the Union Budget 2021-22.
- A.Rs. 15,000
- B.Rs. 30,000
- C.Rs. 25,000
- D.Rs. 10,000
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The Union Budget 2021-22 proposed raising the corpus of the Contingency Fund of India from five hundred crore rupees to thirty thousand crore rupees, and the change was carried through the Finance Bill of that year.
Read the full explanation →Under which article of the Constitution is the Union Budget presented as the Annual Financial Statement?
- A.Article 110
- B.Article 112
- C.Article 114
- D.Article 123
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The Constitution nowhere uses the word budget. Article 112 requires the President to cause to be laid before both Houses of Parliament, in respect of every financial year, a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the Government of India, and this statement is called the Annual Financial Statement.
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