FM can afford to go for a mix of consumption boost & capex in this Budget: Siddhartha Sanyal

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Siddhartha Sanyal, Chief Economist & Head-Research, Bandhan Bank, says there is no urgency on the part of the government or the finance ministry to cut down their projected fiscal deficit or the borrowing number at this moment, possibly they can afford to take a call on that at a later date. But in general, with the additional resources, they will start to allocate it in some ratio both for consumption and investment and not focus too much on cutting the fiscal deficit right away.

Experts are saying that the FM has to walk a tightrope. Do you agree with him because now with the rising cost of living? Where does the FM need to focus on most? If some tinkering is needed, would it have to come through income tax, the capital gains tax, or GST rationalisation? Where is the maximum scope for manoeuvrability for the finance minister?
Siddhartha Sanyal: Every Budget needs to deal with so many expectations that by definition it is almost always a tightrope walk. But having said that, I tend to say that the broad performance of the economy is relatively good. Growth is improving, interestingly from the rural side where there was a lot of concern at some point in time, it looks like some of the indicators have started gradually improving.

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Globally, the concerns around inflation