If a vote for everyone is the touch-stone of political democracy, work for everyone is a measure of economic democracy. This right to work does not mean slave labour as in communist countries. Work should not only give a means of livelihood to a person but it should be of the choice of that person.
– Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya on “Economic Democracy”
Freedom of the individual and interest of the society are not contradictory. Democracy is but an instrument for the fulfilment of the duty of the people. The effectiveness of the instrument depends upon the feeling for the nation in the life of the people, consciousness of responsibility, and
discipline. If these sanskars are absent in citizens, democracy degenerates into an instrument of individual, class and party interest, says Pt Deendayal Upadhyaya on “Fundamentals of Democracy”.
In election season a budget is expected to be ‘populist’, at least, that has been the norm in Bharat. Not surprisingly, all Opposition parties, especially, Congress and the Communists, tried their best to halt the advanced budget presentation through the Election Commission and Supreme Court, on the ground of ‘ensuring free and fair elections’. They failed to do so. The Government also remaining committed to the broad agenda of bringing transparency and inclusive growth, kept Budget primarily a financial statement rather than a political one is the biggest takeaway of this historic budget.
This year’s General Budget was eagerly awaited for many reasons. Firstly, it was the first budget after the
daring decision of demonetisation. As commoners have supported the decision even after hardship of cash crunch, the benefits of cash availability will be passed on to the masses was the obvious expectation. Secondly, the new schedule of annual income-expenditure statement of the Government was seen with curiosity by experts, as earlier budgets usually used to be cleared only after utilising the provision of ‘vote on account’. Delinking from British
tradition of a separate Railway Budget, a combined
budget was to be presented first time in the Parliament was another reason for making this budget historic. In the
overall scenario of slowdown and protectionism world over, ‘how would Bharat carve out the path for future growth’ was a matter of interest for economic experts.
The budget revolving around ten distinct themes to
foster transformation in quality of governance, energising various marginalised sections of society and cleaning
corruption, obviously proposes huge sops for rural and
agricultural development, infrastructure development, defence and educational funding, tax benefits for Small and Medium scale enterprises, etc. While making provisions for social expenditure, the government did not miss the focus on bringing discipline in economy is very critical. As per the
recommendations of ‘Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management’ (FRBM) Committee, the fiscal deficit is poised to be under control in the coming year despite higher social expenditure. Not doles and freebies but investment and empowerment are the measures chosen by the government to ensure financial inclusion.
Introduction of drastic measures for easy, transparent and compliant tax regime is another important follow-up action of demonetisation. Simplified and increased tax net would certainly help in improving the services to the
larger masses. Reducing the donations in cash for political parties and NGOs to Rs 2000 and making cheques, digital payments and electoral bonds as other funding options is a revolutionary step to weed out the root cause of corruption. It will not only curtail the unscrupulous funding to these important but ill-reputed sectors in national life. How this will be implemented and how far political parties comply with the ‘accountability’ aspect by filing returns within the prescribed time, only time will tell.
Overall, the budget has been welcomed by experts, all important organisations and masses; even Opposition also could not give any substantive negative remarks, except usual formal reaction of it being ‘visionless’, ‘anti-poor’ and ‘lost opportunity’. This reflects the general faith in the intention and integrity of the government. And the main reason for this is political will to deliver the mandate for bringing transparency and inclusive growth, going beyond the electoral considerations. These are just budgetary proposals. They can be realised and even bettered in terms of actual results if government decides to implement them with the same spirit and more importantly, we as citizens respond with minimum tax compliance as per our income. This can save us from future ‘populism’ in budgeting. @PrafullaKetkar
