Indian Budget- More of a Tradition

The annual Indian budget is out and media discussions are rife about what the government did right and where it could have done better. Political parties are reacting on the predicted lines. I too have my reservations and analysis of this year’s budget. What does this budget mean for the aam aadmi? Do budgets really matter for the common man anymore or for that sake, does the industry take the budget as seriously as before?

            Post 1991, every passing year shows that the Annual Budget is more of a tradition now than a serious financial statement. With markets being deregulated price control is not a major issue and decisions regarding excise duty, import tariffs, subsidies are taken all the year round. Fiscal policy is a major part of the budget where this time the entire tax system has been handled in the old way though promises of gargantuan nature were made before polls and budget by the present BJP government. Though GST was anathema for BJP in the past, it has embraced it enthusiastically now which is “interesting”. How subsides and welfare program spending will be handled is a tricky question which has not been answered substantially by the Finance Minister.

            29 schemes have been allotted 100 crores each which does not make sense as the amount is too small for these projects and there is no roadmap regarding the source of revenue.

            However my biggest concern is the amount given for infrastructure. 27600 crores have been earmarked for various projects. Somewhere the land mafia influencing the budget seems high. Even during the UPA regime, money was misspent and projects took longer than required which escalated the costs. The priority for the government should be to see that implementation of these projects is on time and there are no sidekicks passed out.

            Another allocation which is beyond comprehension is the amount allocated for building the iron statue of Vallabhai Patel. 200 crores have been allocated for this. It was the pet project of the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr Narendra Bhai Modi for which he also collected iron from all over the country. Now why does the government want to spend so much of the tax payer’s money on such a project and allocate just 100 crores for women safety is beyond logic.

            Similarly 100 crores have been allocated for a survey to be done on inter linking the rivers. We have had many committees and sub committees on this issue, therefore having another survey costing 100 crores is insane.

Making MNREGA more practical and financially viable is a good initiative of the government. Asset creation is a must for these welfare schemes because mere handouts will not lead to poverty alleviation.

If we talk about the state of Madhya Pradesh in this budget, then we find that much has not been given to our state. If just take the railways, we find that we have the lowest railway network of 16.67 km/ 1000 sq kms whereas the national average is 24 kms. We have been kept out of the Golden Quadrilateral which was a NDA program. Similarly our road network is also very poor at 110,000 kms where our neigbouring state Maharashtra which is smaller in size has 250,000 kms of roads. Though we have BJP both at centre and in our state, we have not been given the status of privileged state. We have 21 percent tribal population which is the highest in the country, highest IMR and MMR rate (poor roads is one of the cause for these rates to be high) among other poor indicators.

Budgets have become more of a tradition and less of an important financial statement because it lacks government vision. Policies of the government are not clearly spelt out. Political will is the most important thing for this country which is somehow lacking.