If there is not a correct figure of income and expenditure, then how will the government know how much debt it will take. If that is not known properly then we will not get the right idea of the rate of interest.
It has been promised that this time the budget will be amazing and unique. I have used heavy words like wonderful and unique for special effect only. It is difficult to guess the amazing. But there is no harm in pasting your wishlist. Like every people of the country, I also wish that income tax exemption should be given to increase the demand in the economy. Will it happen? Do not know. Everyone’s strong desire is to increase government spending so that the economy gets a boost. will what? Can not say because amazing is also inconceivable.
I believe that even small changes can make the budget unique. There is a great need for three changes – transparency, transparency, assessment of results and clarity in clarity. See a small sample of what kind of transparency is required. Income and expenditure are accounted for in the budget. But do we get the right picture of income and expenditure in the budget papers?
Now take the most important government deficit figures. For the past several years, there has been a category called off balance sheet items. Earlier, oil subsidies started being transferred. Then food and fertilizer subsidy. Thousands of crores of off balance sheet items are different worlds. This is the liability of the government. But this is not accounted for in the budget.
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In the same way, take an item of government income. I do not remember if the target of disinvestment that has been kept in the budget has ever been met. For example, last year there was an announcement to raise more than two lakh crore rupees from disinvestment. There are only two months left for the end of the financial year and only 10% of the target has been completed.
If you do not have the correct figures of income and expenditure, how will you know how much debt the government will take. If that is not known properly then we will not get the right idea of the rate of interest. How much loan the government takes affects the interest rate greatly.
The second item of the list of wishes is whether the announcements will be such that we will know what the result will be. It is announced in the budget that there will be so much expenditure on social sector, so many thousand crores will be given for rural development. It would have been better if it would have been known that how much employment will be generated in a year by government expenditure, how many people will read and write, how many hospital beds will be added, how many kilometers of roads will be built, how much capacity of government offices will be increased, how much will export increase , How much the capacity of manufacturing will increase, how much percentage will be increased in the income of farmers and laborers .. If we get such data then we will know where concrete work is being done.
Clarity is the third item on the list. Think of it this way. Nowadays, the word self-sufficient is prevalent. Does this mean boosting domestic production by reducing imports? Does this mean turning away from global trade? Does this mean calling the foreign company by-bye and indigenous as vou? There is a lot of confusion in this. Will there be a confusion in the budget?
These small wishes are not such that, like Mirza Ghalib, we have to say that thousands of wishes come true.
Mayank Mishra, writer is a senior journalist.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in the column are those of the author. The facts and views given in the article do not in any way reflect the views of Money9.com.
