主题：中东大乱，印度趁机办大事 -- empire2007

We’ve cut rates but you mustn’t miss targets, Modi tells taxmen

莫迪告诫税务人员：虽然调低了税率，但不能调低税收目标

India’s Finance Ministry has delivered a challenge to its revenue collectors: meet tax targets despite $20 billion of corporate tax cuts.

印度财政部向税收官员提出了一个高要求：尽管削减了200亿美元的公司税，仍要实现税收目标。

Through a video conference on Dec. 16, officials were exhorted to meet the direct tax mop-up target of Rs 13.4 lakh crore ($187 billion), a go nment official told reporters. Collection in the eight months to November grew at 5% from a year earlier, against the desired 17%.

一名政府官员告诉记者，在12月16日的一次视频会议上，官员们被要求完成13.4万亿卢比(1870亿美元)的直接税清理目标。在截至11月的8个月里，托收比上年同期增长了5%，而非预期的17%。

The missive shows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s urgent need to buoy public finances in a slowing economy where April-November tax collections were half the amount budgeted. Authorities withheld some payments to states and have capped ministries’ expenditure as the fiscal deficit ballooned beyond target.

这封公函显示，在经济放缓的情况下，印度总理纳伦德拉莫迪急需提振公共财政。印度4月至11月的税收收入只有预期的一半。由于财政赤字不断膨胀，超出了预算目标，有关部门停止了对各邦的部分支出，并对各部委的支出设置了上限。

The go nment’s efforts to maintain its deficit goal goes against advice from some quarters, including central bank Governor Shaktikanta Das, who urged more spending to spur economic growth.

政府维持赤字目标的努力与一些人的建议背道而驰，其中包括央行行长达斯，他敦促增加支出以刺激经济增长。

It’s uncertain though how much room Modi’s administration has to boost expenditure, given that it may already be borrowing as much as 540 billion rupees through state-run companies, a figure that isn’t reflected on the federal balance sheet. Uncertainty about public finances pushed up sovereign yields in November and December, compelling Das to announce unconventional policies to keep costs in check.

不过，尚不清楚莫迪政府增加支出的空间有多大，可能已通过国有企业借入了高达5400亿卢比的资金，这个数字并没有反映在联邦政府的资产负债表上。公共财政的不确定性推高了11月和12月的主权债券收益率，迫使Das宣布非常规政策以控制成本。

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“This is not a time to conceal the fiscal deficit by off-budget borrowing or deferring payments,” said Indira Rajaraman, an economist and a former member of the Reserve Bank of India’s board. “If they were to stick to the target, that would be catastrophic because there is so much pump priming that is needed right now.”

印度央行前理事、经济学家英迪拉•拉贾拉曼表示:“现在不是通过预算外借款或延期支付来掩盖财政赤字的时候。如果他们坚持目标，那将是灾难性的，因为现在需要大量的激励措施。”

India’s gross domestic product grew 4.5% in the quarter ended September, the slowest pace in more than six years as both consumption and investments cooled in Asia’s third-largest economy. Only go nment spending supported the expansion, piling pressure on Modi to keep stimulating.

截至9月底的这个季度，印度国内生产总值增长4.5%，是六年多来的最低增速，原因是这个亚洲第三大经济体的消费和投资双双降温。只有政府支出支持了经济扩张，这给莫迪施加了压力，要求他继续刺激经济。

S&P Global Ratings warned in December it may downgrade India’s sovereign ratings if economic growth doesn’t recover.

标准普尔全球评级公司去年12月警告说，如果经济增长无法恢复，可能会下调印度的主权评级。

Government support seems to be waning now, with ministries asked to cap spending in the final quarter of the financial year at 25% of the amount budgeted rather than 33% allowed earlier. This new rule will hamstring sectors including agriculture, aviation and coal, where not even half of annual targets have been disbursed.

政府的支持似乎正在减弱，各部门被要求在财政年度的最后一个季度将支出限制在预算总额的25%，而不是之前允许的33%。这项新规定将阻碍农业、航空和煤炭等行业的发展，这些行业的年度目标支出甚至不到一半。

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has refused to comment on the deficit goal before an official presentation due Feb. 1.

印度财政部长西塔拉曼拒绝在2月1日的正式讲话之前就赤字目标发表评论。

A deviation from target, if any, “will need to be balanced with a credible consolidation plan further-out,” said Radhika Rao, an economist at DBS Group Holdings Ltd. in Singapore.

星展集团控股有限公司驻新加坡的经济学家Radhika Rao说，如果有偏离目标的情况，“就需要有一个可靠的进一步整合计划来平衡”。