Notwithstanding the attempts made to undo the budget deficits initiating the fiscal reform process, the art of budget making in India is far from salutary both in terms of content, and macroeconomic and social implications. Given the political economy fundamentals (institutional constraints), the adherence to fiscal rules may, at best, contain the overall public expenditures through fiscal pruning measures, but may fail in addressing (i) the distributional effects of public expenditure policies, and hence, (ii) the composition of public expenditure.