Unusual, setting modern India on track
Jargons and clichés are out. Budget 2022-23 is a vision document with actions for future India. Giving no space for an election year appeasement, Nirmala Sitharaman enviably presented the Union budget 2022-23, which the otherwise uproarious representatives of people listened in unusual silence.
I have watched every budget since 1991 – since the first one presented by Dr Manmohan Singh. Until 2014 every government had coalition compulsions with dictations from State satraps. Budget presentation was a ritual celebrated by a handful of privileged lots. Freebies, subsidies and tax cuts were the yardsticks of budget evaluation. Still, the ghosts haven’t fully disappeared. Hence, there are questions, though not so galore. The budget 2022-23 envisions a modern India, a robust country that was unimaginable a decade ago. We are happily out of the era now, thanks to the political non-compulsion. A government with a vision for the next 25 years seems to be serious about making India a growth model of the century.
I had seen many Union budget presentations which fired up the bull and equally bear in the capital markets, mostly in hot pursuit. The time of the calculated step seems to have come now as the market behaviour on the day of the Budget 2022-23 presentation showed. I had seen the so-called economic think tanks presenting the budget after stirring great enthusiasm, but ending up back-to-square-one over a period, often with roll-back also under coalition pressure. Nevertheless, after listening to this year’s budget I have understood one thing, and the world at large too might have realized; a finance minister doesn’t need to be an erudite economist or as celebrated an economist as Dr Manmohan Singh. No more coalition pressure. The Union budget can easily accommodate a robust vision for the future. Nirmala Sitharaman’s only association with economics was her service as an assistant to an economist at a British trade association named Agricultural Engineers Association (AEA) before she entered politics. But the Union budget 2020-23 jostled her to the level of India’s best finance minister if she is given unbiased ratings.
There was a time when we had celebrated a pragmatic budget that did speak much about capital investments and employment generation, but policies instead of a budget that can propel direct investments for firing up long term growth. The miserly budget of those days was shy of deficit, fearing inflation. At the same time, the political interests of subsidies and freebies as vote catchers used to occupy a big space loosening the fiscal deficit. The coalition era budget couldn’t be different. We should not look at the Union budget-2022-23 through the same prism always and keep watching the economy crawling along with a cry for ordinary people’s interests. No deficit economy in the world can afford a direct filling of people’s pockets to serve a short term political interest. There is no equation available to shave off deficit other than to stop all investments. It seems new India has discovered the fact that a robust economy can slowly manage the deficit and overcome the challenge by revenue generation through stirring economic activities over a period. That needs pump-priming on infrastructure, focus on creating employment opportunities, promotion of new generation enterprises and opening the door of technology potential for building efficiency along with entrepreneurial opportunities. Start-ups and Atmanibhar Bharat have done wonders. Atmanirbhar Bharat created six million new jobs. On one side silently, defence productions are rising, cutting down import dependence; on the other side innovations in many sectors make India a global intellectual hotspot.
May be higher than the expectations of orthodox economists, but they should not miss the wisdom of investment-driven revolution in many segments. Keeping fiscal deficit at 6.4 per cent of the GDP, the government could ensure three-fold growth in capital investments, besides making the private sector pump-priming the long term goal. As the Finance Minister herself mentioned: “This budget seeks to lay the foundation and give a blueprint to steer the economy over the Amrit kal of the next 25 years – from India at 75 to India at 100.” No matter, who may be in the power seat at that time.
An investment of Rs 7.5 trillion, a three-fold rise in two years means a lot for the country that is now entering an era of stagnant population growth. By the turn of this decade, half of the population will live in the urban centres, if the plan of the government as meant through this budget goes right. That requires a determined and sustained effort, of course with political stability. That will fire the rural growth too. Urban growth opens opportunities for the rural population.
Unusual silence seen in the Parliament at the time of the Budget 2022-23 presentation has spoken everything. States have no reason to cry. Politically biased comments have little space, other than some anticipated blaming by political opponents that the FM hasn’t touched this and that. FM doesn’t need to talk about what is not necessary if the Finance Bill is enough. One action ignites the engine that propels the wheels which carry the entire wagon. Rest is the duty of cabin crews. Everything moves in a chain. That will keep moving with a bit better focus on coordination by those who are responsible for execution. Any delay in implementation and the bureaucratic habit of sleeping on files until the deadline can make every dream a bit shaky. This budget hasn’t been for the economy, but India, the very modern India. The vision is broader.
