Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asserted that India remains firmly committed to fiscal discipline, even after the severe economic strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, she outlined how the government had laid down a clear fiscal glide path in 2021, with the aim of bringing the fiscal deficit below 4.5% of GDP by FY2026 — and has stuck to it unwaveringly.
Sitharaman pointed out that India’s fiscal deficit, which had ballooned during the pandemic, has been reined in consistently each year since then. She further highlighted that India’s debt-to-GDP ratio has been reduced from 62% to 57.4% over four years, with a target of bringing it down to 50% by the end of the decade. In contrast, she noted, many developed countries continue to carry debt levels exceeding 100% of their GDP.
The finance minister attributed this fiscal turnaround to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, which, she said, ensured transparency and accountability in public expenditure. “Value for taxpayers’ money is non-negotiable,” she said, adding that strict monitoring of public spending has helped maintain financial discipline even in challenging times.
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