This refers to the editorial, “The feel-great Budget” (February 2). Union Minister for Finance Arun Jaitley has proposed measures to improve honesty and transparency in political funding, but these are toothless. He has slashed the limit for anonymous cash donations from Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,000 per donor. As laundering of high-value notes showed earlier, such curbs are easily evaded. Political managers can simply raise number of bogus donors 10-fold. Anyway, only a tiny fraction of political money ever enters the party registers, so the new measure cannot cleanse politics.
That said, the Opposition, especially the Congress, must have heaved a sigh of relief as the Government refrained from using the Budget to woo the electorate in poll-bound States with direct cash transfer in the wake of demonetisation. Budget proposals are not likely to benefit the BJP in the upcoming polls in States such as Uttar Pradesh, given the heightened expectations of direct cash incentives after demonetisation hardships.