Powerpoint presentation for Under graduation economics BA and BSc (Honours) course. Recommended for Class 12 ISC Economics.

1. Public Finance
Contents : Fiscal Policy
Government Budget

2. • Fiscal policy
• Fiscal policy is defined as the policy under which the government uses
the instrument of taxation, public spending and public borrowing to
achieve various objectives of economic policy. Simply put, it is the
policy of government spending and taxation to achieve sustainable
growth. Fiscal policy is often contrasted with monetary policy which is
regulated by the central bank. It is largely inspired by the ideas of
British economist John Maynard Keynes whose theories were
developed in the response to the Great Depression and were hugely
influential in the formulation of the New Deal in the U.S. that aimed
at huge spending for public projects and social welfare development.

3. Instruments of Fiscal policy
• The tools of fiscal policy are taxes, expenditure, public debt and a nation’s
budget. They consist of changes in government revenues or rates of the tax
structure so as to encourage or restrict private expenditures on
consumption and investment.
• Public expenditures include normal government expenditures, capital
expenditures on public works, relief expenditures, subsidies of various
types, transfer payments and social security benefits.
• Government expenditures are income-creating while taxes are primarily
income-reducing. Management of public debt in most countries has also
become an important tool of fiscal policy. It aims at influencing aggregate
spending through changes in the holding of liquid assets.

4. :Public Revenue
• Public revenue’ (or Government revenue) is concerned with the
Income of the Government through various sources
• Taxes :-
• A tax is a mandatory fee or financial charge levied by any government
on an individual or an organization to collect revenue for public works
providing the best facilities and infrastructure. The collected fund is
then used to fund different public expenditure programs.

5. Direct taxes
• The tax which is paid directly by the person on whom it is imposed is
a direct Tax. In this case the burden does not shift to the other, i.e the
person bearing the tax and the person paying the tax are the same.
There is a direct connection between the tax payer and the tax
levying authorities.
• Direct Tax includes: Income Tax, Wealth Tax, Corporate tax, Gift Tax,
Estate Duty.

6. Indirect taxes
• INDIRECT TAX (also known as COMMODITY TAX): The tax which is not
paid directly by the person on whom it is imposed is an indirect Tax.
In this case the burden partly or wholly shifts to the other, i.e the
person bearing the tax and the person paying the tax are not the
same. There is no direct connection between the tax payer and the
tax levying authorities. Indirect Tax includes: Customs Duty, Excise
Duty, Sales Tax, Service Tax, VAT, etc. On the basis of income, the tax
revenues are classified into Proportional, Progressive, Regressive and
Digressive.

7. Public Expenditure
• Expenses incurred by the public authorities—central, state and local
self- governments—are called public expenditure. Such expenditures
are made for the maintenance of the governments as well as for the
benefit of the society as whole.

8. • Importance of Public Expenditure
• i. Economic Development: Without government support and backing, a
poor country cannot make huge investments to bring about a favourable
change in the economic base of a country. That is why massive investments
are made by the government in the development of basic and key
industries, agriculture, consumable goods, etc.
• Public expenditure has the expansionary effect on the growth of national
income, employment opportunities, etc. Economic development also
requires development of economic infrastructures. A developing country
like India must undertake various projects, like road-bridge-dam
construction, power plants, transport and communications, etc.
• These social overhead capital or economic infrastructures are of crucial
importance for accelerating the pace of economic development. It is to be
remembered here that private investors are incapable of making such
massive investments on the various infrastructural projects. It is imperative
that the government undertakes such projects. Greater the public
expenditure, higher is the level of economic development.

9. • Fiscal Policy Instruments:
• Public expenditure is considered as an important tool of fiscal policy. Public
expenditure creates and increases the scope of employment opportunities
during depression. Thus, public expenditure can prevent periodic cyclical
fluctuations. During depression, it is recommended that there should be
more and more governmental expenditures on the ground that it creates
jobs and incomes.
• On the contrary, a cut-back in government’s expenditure is necessary when
the economy faces the problem of inflation. That is why it is said that by
manipulating public expenditure, cyclical fluctuations can be lessened
greatly. In other words, variation of public expenditure is a part of the anti-
cyclical fiscal policy.
• It is to be kept in mind that it is not just the amount of public expenditure
that is incurred which is of importance to the economy. What is equally, if
not more, important is the purpose of such expenditure or the quality of
expenditure. The quality of expenditure determines the adequacy and
effectiveness of such expenditure. Excessive expenditures may cause
inflation.

10. • Redistribution of Income:
• Public expenditure is used as a powerful fiscal instrument to bring
about an equitable distribution of income and wealth. There are good
much public expenditure that benefit poor income groups. By
providing subsidies, free education and health care facilities to the
poor people, government can improve the economic position of these
people.

11. • Balanced Regional Growth:
• Public expenditure can correct regional disparities. By diverting
resources in backward regions, government can bring about all-round
development there so as to compete with the advanced regions of
the country.
• This is what is required to maintain integration and unity among
people of all the regions. Unbalanced regional growth encourages
disintegrating forces to rise. Public expenditure is an antidote for
these reactionary elements.
• Thus, public expenditure has both economic and social objectives. It
is necessary to ensure that the government’s expenditure is made
solely in the public interest and does not serve any individual’s
interest or that of any political party or a group of persons.

12. Public Debt
• Public debt is the total amount, including total liabilities, borrowed by
the government to meet its development budget. It has to be paid
from the Consolidated Fund of India. The term is also used to refer to
overall liabilities of central and state governments, but the Union
government clearly distinguishes its debt liabilities from the states

13. Measures for redemption of Public debt
• Refunding:
• Refunding of debt implies the issue of new bonds and securities by
the government in order to repay the matured loans.
• Conversion:
• Conversion of public debt implies changing the existing loans, before
maturity, into new loans at an advantage in servicing charges. In fact,
the process of conversion consists generally, in converting or altering
a public debt from a higher to a lower rate of interest.

14. • Surplus budgets:
• Quite often, surplus budgets (i.e., by spending less than the public revenue
obtained) may be utilized for clearing off public debts. But in recent years
due to ever-increasing public expenditures, surplus budget is a rare
phenomenon.
• Sinking fund:
• A sinking fund is a fund created by the government and gradually
accumulated every year by setting aside a part of current public revenue in
such a way that it would be sufficient to pay off the funded debt at the
time of maturity. Perhaps, this is the most systematic and best method of
redemption.

15. • Terminable annuities:
• This method of debt redemption is similar to that of the sinking fund.
Under this method, the fiscal authorities clear off a part of the public
debt every year by issuing terminable annuities to the bond-holders
which mature annually. Thus, it is the method of redeeming debts in
installments. By this method, the burden of debt goes on diminishing
annually and by the time of maturity it is fully paid off.

16. • Additional Taxation:
• The simplest measure of debt redemption is to impose new taxes and get
the required revenue to repay the loan principal as well as the interest.
• Surplus Balance of Payments:
• The redemption of external debt, however, is possible only through an
accumulation of foreign exchange reserves. This necessitates creation of a
favourable balance of payments by the debtor country by augmenting its
exports and curbing its imports, thereby improving the position of its trade
balance.

17. • Deficit financing means generating funds to finance the deficit which
results from excess of expenditure over revenue. The gap being
covered by borrowing from the public by the sale of bonds or by
printing new money.
• government budget, forecast by a government of its expenditures and
revenues for a specific period of time. In national finance, the period
covered by a budget is usually a year, known as a financial or fiscal
year, which may or may not correspond with the calendar year.

18. Government Budget
• Government budget, forecast by a government of its expenditures
and revenues for a specific period of time. In national finance, the
period covered by a budget is usually a year, known as a financial or
fiscal year, which may or may not correspond with the calendar year
Government budget and its components can be divided into two parts
– Capital budget
Revenue budget

19. Components of Government Budget
• Capital Budget – These refer to receipts that reduce assets for a
government and create financial liabilities. Conversely, capital
expenditure on a government’s part helps to create assets and reduce
liabilities. The capital budget, thus, is an account of these liabilities
and assets under the government, which denote a change in total
capital.
• Revenue Budget – As its name suggests, the revenue budget refers to
revenue receipts generated and expenses met through this revenue.
These receipts include both tax and non-tax revenue earned by a
government.

20. Union Budget
• According to Article 112 of the Indian Constitution, the Union Budget
of a year, also referred to as the annual financial statement, is a
statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the
government for that particular year.
• Description: Union Budget keeps the account of the government's
finances for the fiscal year that runs from 1st April to 31st March.
Union Budget is classified into Revenue Budget and Capital Budget.

21. State Budget
• The state budget lists the revenues and expenditures of the
Government in a particular year. The budget for each fiscal year (from
January to December of that year) is determined by law, and it
presents the planned and projected expenditures of the Government
for the fiscal year in question. Appended to the budget is an estimate
regarding the sources of financing of the expenditures, meaning the
state’s projected revenues.

22. • Fiscal Deficit
• Fiscal deficit is defined as the excess of total expenditures over the total
receipts, excluding the borrowings in a year. In other words, this can be
defined as the amount that the government needs to borrow in order to
meet all expenses.
• The more the fiscal deficit, the more will be the amount borrowed. Fiscal
deficit helps in understanding the shortfall that the government faces while
paying for the expenditures in the absence of lack of funds.
• The formula for calculating fiscal deficit is as follows:
• Fiscal deficit = Total expenditures – Total receipts excluding borrowings

23. • Revenue Deficit
• Revenue expenditure is defined as the excess of total revenue expenditure over the total
revenue receipts. In other words, the shortfall of revenue receipts as compared to that of
the revenue expenditure is known as revenue deficit.
• Revenue deficit signals to the economists that the revenue earned by the government is
insufficient to meet the requirements of the expenditures required for the essential
government functions.
• The formula for revenue deficit can be expressed as follows:
• Revenue deficit = Total revenue expenditure – Total revenue receipts

24. • Primary deficit is said to be the fiscal deficit of the current year subtracted by the
interest payments that are pending on previous borrowings. In other words, the
primary deficit is the requirement of borrowing without the interest payment.
• Primary deficit, therefore, shows the expenses that government borrowings are
going to fulfil while not paying for the income interest payment.
• A zero deficit shows that there is a requirement for availing credit or borrowing
for clearing the interest payments pending.
• The formula for the primary deficit is expressed as follows:
• Primary deficit = Fiscal deficit – Interest payments