What could be the major points to be assessed and presented in the budget of 2020?

Here are some of the data pointers for the FM as she embarks on a major spree to seek feedback before presenting the budget.

· Government is likely to miss the divestment target by a wide margin with only Rs.18,022 crore collected by way of divestments so far. Also, there is likely to be a delay in privatisation of Air India, BPCL and Concor

· RBI has warned that the NPAs of banks might grow to 9.9% by September and that would be a challenge for the FM while presenting the budget

· In case of NBFCs the focus will be on liquidity enhancement and striving to revive rural demand and consumption

· Bank credit growth slowed to 7.2% in November from 13.8% in the year-ago month and that can be attributed to too much of government bond holdings. Loans to industry growth declined to 2.4 % to Rs.27.72 trillion in November

· Finance Ministry has capped expenditures for the last quarter of FY20, under revised criteria, of 3-8% reduction from the existing figures and we could see restricted budgeted expenditures.

· Fiscal deficit hitting 115% of the budget estimate till November has set alarm bells as the tax revenues and disinvestment proceeds are well short of targets

· In addition, the Rs.1.45 trillion impact of lowering of tax rate for corporates is also likely to negatively impact revenue mobilisation. More borrowing is not an option either.

· There are general expectations of cut in personal income tax even as corporate tax rate reduction to 22% from 30%, and to 15% from 25% for new manufacturing entities, has increased the common man's expectation from the budget

· With slowdown and lack of industrial activity, GST and direct tax revenues are expected to be way below targets for the year.

· Central GST mop-up at the end of December stands at Rs.3.72 trillion against the full-year target of Rs.5.26 trillion. That looks like a talk task.