The Gujarat earthquake has certainly upset Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha’s plan of a medium-term fiscal correction envisaged in the Fiscal Responsibility Bill. Nobody, therefore, expects Budget 2001 to reduce the Center’s borrowings, that is, the fiscal deficit. But the quake has also presented him with an opportunity to kick-start high economic growth by massive infrastructure spending and, indeed, budget-makers are engaged in such an effort. Most probably the Budget will peg borrowings as a proportion of GDP at 5.5 per cent or more. That will not only put paid to the plan of a 50-basis point annual reduction for the next three years , but the borrowings in Budget 2001 will be substantially higher than this year’s level (5.1 per cent of GDP).