An annual Budget is the Government's statement of intent for the next fiscal. But after listening to Piyush Goyal's interim Budget speech, it looked like a vision document, performance report card, an election campaign document and what not
Two childhood friends, now in their youth, met after a long time. They happened to meet on the day when interim Finance Minister Piyush Goyal gave his Budget speech in Parliament. The Budget being the talk of the town, especially in the national capital where they had met, they couldn’t avoid discussing about it. This is how their conversation unfolded:
Ankit: What do you think of the Budget?
Nishant: Well, I don’t know what sense to make of it. I see some experts heaping praise while others being overtly critical of it. If the opinion of experts is so divergent, I am really at a loss. I wonder if it has always been like that!
Ankit: Wasn’t this supposed to be an interim Budget?
Nishant: Quite frankly, I have never understood the difference between an interim and a final Budget. Going by what Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned, interim Budget is more like a trailer, which means much more is yet to come.
Ankit: Well, after this Budget, I am totally confused too. I had always thought that an annual Budget is the Government’s statement of intent for the next fiscal year. But after listening to the Finance Minister’s Budget speech this time, it seems to be a vision document, a performance report card, an election campaign document and what not.
Anyway, I believe the Government deserves to be complimented for the two large welfare programmes — direct benefit transfers to small and marginal farmers and the Mega Pension Yojana for the unorganised sector workers — that most people are talking about.
Nishant: I am not sure if the credit for these welfare programmes should go to the Government. In my view, it should go to the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance).
Ankit: Mahagathbandhan? How? Why?
Nishant: It’s the fear of mahagathbandhan that led to the announcement of these welfare programmes. In fact, the Congress was all set to include a direct benefit transfer scheme in its election manifesto. They had even started promising it to the farmers. But the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has pre-empted this move of the grand old party. Anyhow, the credit for the funding of these programmes actually goes to the tax-payers. Piyush Goyal himself said so. The Government is just an intermediary. Isn’t it?
Ankit: The mega pension scheme is tipped to be one of the largest pension programmes in the world. Actually, this Government believes in “big is beautiful” philosophy. Look at the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana — meant to provide financial protection to over 10 crore poor households against the hospitalisation costs — that is also tipped to be the world’s largest health insurance programme. I don’t have to remind you of the ongoing Maha Kumbh.
Nishant: Yes, the Government believes in “tall is beautiful” philosophy too.
Ankit: Heard that the defence sector has received a fat Budget allocation this time — more than Rs 3 lakh crores?
Nishant: The Government had no choice, I guess, given the rate at which our Indian Air Force (IAF) planes are crashing. Coincidently, the day the Budget was presented, two of our senior pilots got killed in an IAF Mirage crash. I guess, higher allocations will have other benefits too such as sending clear signals to our neighbours, boosting ‘Make in India,’ and also keeping the opposition parties busy snooping on defence deals.
Ankit: When the Finance Minister mentioned about “phone banking” in his speech, I thought he was implying about phone banking mobile application to extend the reach of banking to the rural and remote areas. But by phone banking he actually meant the culture of calling banking officials to get dubious loans sanctioned.
Nishant: Yes, little wonder why the Indian banking system is in such a mess under the burden of non-performing assets (NPAs). By the way, did the Finance Minister make any announcement on the recapitalisation of public sector banks in this Budget?
Ankit: I haven’t read it anywhere. Perhaps, some of the populist schemes may have crowded out this important agenda.
Nishant: Did you say populist Budget? Far from it! The Budget is hardly populist, if one were to believe the Congress.
Ankit: How come? Did the Congress not say that it’s an election Budget?
Nishant: Well, the Congress president Rahul Gandhi also made fun of the Government for offering a paltry amount of Rs 17 per day to every small farmer. Doesn’t this mean that the BJP Government was quite modest in its populist ambitions?
Ankit: I read that the indisposed minister in the US said that this amount could be enhanced in future.
Nishant: Now that’s the best part of an “interim Budget” — no finality to anything!
And so, their Budget bantering went on and on…
(The writer is a development economist, formerly with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Bank)