Over
two weeks ago, Sri. Arun Jaitley, the Finance Minister presented the Union
Budget in the Lok Sabha for the Financial Year 2016-17. Since then, much has
been said and much more has been written on the merits and demerits of the
budgetary allocations, policy announcements and strategic decisions therein. So
much so, that a few more words do not really matter much, do they? Besides, it
is always better late than never. You surely agree, don’t you?
So here’s
my objective assessment of the FY 2016-17 budget. Since the T20 Cricket World
Cup is well underway now, the "pros and cons" in my list of "Most
Salient Aspects of the Budget" total twenty in number─ 15
"pros", or rather "sixes" deserving bouquets; and, 5
"cons", um..."misses" calling for brickbats.
Overall, this budget gets a 8.0 on a scale of 10.0 in my books!
First-up:
The GOOD, nay, GREAT policies and provisions:
- Major emphasis on farming and agriculture sectors;
- Massive outlay for the rural sector- significant allocations to gram panchayats and MNREGA;
- Scheme for giving LPG connections to women members of poor households;
- 100% FDI in food processing, which is sure to increase demand for produce and enhance earnings of farmers;
- Use of the Aadhar framework for direct benefits transfers (without using it to confer citizenship rights or to ascertain domicile), and thereby, plugging systemic leakages;
- Massive focus on irrigation;
- Allocation for converting city waste to compost;
- Huge push for creating transportation infrastructure- public investment of about Rs. 218,000 crores on roads and railways;
- Rationalisation and restructuring of 1500+ central plan schemes into 300 central sector and 30 centrally-sponsored schemes;
- Launch of innovative “Crop Insurance” and “Soil Health Card” initiatives;
- Unified agricultural marketing scheme and online procurement (MSP) of agricultural produce;
- Revamping of the National Land Record Modernisation Programme under the Digital India initiative to digitise land records for dispute-free titles;
- New health insurance scheme to be announced;
- 100% village electrification by May, 2018;
- A technology-driven platform for efficient and transparent procurement of goods and services by government;
Next
up: The NOT-SO-GOOD aspects:
- Cuts in food security expenditure, fertilizer and fuel subsidies;
- No plan for tackling the huge NPAs of public-sector banks [through either recapitalization or consolidation];
- Lack of adequate clarity on outlays for the Startup India and Stand-up India initiatives;
- Inadequate allocation for jump-starting innovation and IP protection;
- No concrete long-term policy decisions or measures for boosting exports.
