Responsible Budget, now implement it
Finally, a populist Budget with measures for the poor, and the last before the 2014 general election. Union finance minister P. Chidambaram spent around one hour and 17 minutes of his less than two-hour speech unveiling his programmes and funding for the poor, for women (calling it a Gender Budget), for Scheduled Castes and Tribes, and, to some extent, the youth.
While these crores of rupees sound good on paper, and one does not for a moment doubt the sincerity of the finance minister spending a few thousand crores to let women live with dignity and honour, the overarching need is to see that this money goes to the targeted people. Nothing has changed since former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi said that of every Rs 10 only Rs 1 goes to the targeted persons.
There is nothing in the Budget to indicate that there would be regular monthly or fortnightly reviews to see that the money goes where it is supposed to. It is hoped that Mr Chidambaram will attend to this shortcoming.
There was an overall collective sigh of relief from India Inc. as Mr Chidambaram did not increase taxes, and even those earning above Rs 1 crore will be taxed only 10 per cent more for just one year. He hoped, on a lighter note, that they would pay it in the giving spirit of Wipro chief Azim Premji.
There is, however, a sense of disappointment as one did expect more from the very financially savvy finance minister in the way of innovative measures to attract investment, both foreign and domestic, after the foreign road shows. For instance, why would foreign direct investment in retail come if one has to get 42 licences? Investment and infrastructure, after all, are not only about money.
But having said this, it must be admitted that he did put a lot of thinking into the details of several issues. For instance, he has attacked speculators in the real estate sector, particularly in the NCR, who buy and sell properties only to make a killing. He imposed one per cent TDS on sales transactions above Rsw 50 lakh.
His attention to agriculture was woefully negligible even though the Economic Survey said there was a need to shore up the supply side to curb food inflation. It is puzzling why he allotted funds to irrigation-rich states like Punjab and did nothing for the non-irrigation farmlands where help is most needed. Even the districts specified by his predecessor, now President, Pranab Mukherjee, for growing pulses and edible oil seeds for which we rely heavily on imports, have been neglected. Perhaps these will come up during the debate on the Budget in Parliament.
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