With only four months left for this financial year to end, and Rs 87,635.7 crore of the target still remaining, will the Modi government be fourth time lucky?

Stake sale in PSUs is top priority for the government in absence of which fiscal deficit is expected to widen in the next seven months.

The Budget Estimates for 2020-21 will be provisionally finalised after the expenditure secretary completes discussions with other secretaries and financial advisers.

The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) will soon hold inter-ministerial talks and outline the methods and strategies of bringing the government's stake down to 51% in the PSUs.

The government has come under tremendous pressure to meet its fiscal target due to a falling revenue collection and a series of measures taken in the last month to reinvigorate the sagging economy

While the government is doing maths to find alternate revenue sources, there is another issue to take into account -- the Centre fears a deficit of nearly Rs 40,000 crore in the GST collections as compared to what it had budgeted for 2019/20

The Centre's as well as the states' liabilities are rising at an alarming rate

Nearly a dozen companies have been identified in a preliminary list, including maharatna and navratna CPSEs such as Indian Oil Corporation, NTPC, Power Grid, Oil India, GAIL, BPCL, and Engineers India Limited, where the government wants to cut its direct holding to under 51 per cent

Even if the government decides to go ahead and issue sovereign bonds in foreign currency, its rising borrowings will continue to put pressure on liquidity in the domestic market

The government has given in-principle approval for strategic disinvestments of 23 CPSEs including subsidiaries, units and joint ventures with majority stake sale of the government and transfer of the management control

The shortage of funds is threatening key sectors of the economy. What the government needs to do to fix it

Last fiscal, exports were about Rs 10,700 crore and in 2019-20, the Centre set a target of Rs 20,000 crore.

The Modi government is not only looking at selling assets of Central Public Sector Enterprises but also strategic disinvestment in profitable state-run behemoths, going below the 51 per cent ownership threshold it steadfastly maintained so far

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharamans Budget is long on promises but short on ideas about fulfilling them