Eyes On The Prize

It was a perfect election year Budget by interim finance minister Piyush Goyal. While the first part of the Budget 2019-20 was all about the NDA’s achievements and successes, the second was all about its vision for the next 10 years, a fervent appeal to the electorate for a return to power.

- Ashish Gupta

IN MANY WAYS, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had already sounded the poll bugle after the state elections last year. But it still needed a masterstroke. And the Interim Budget that Piyush Goyal presented in Parliament delivered just that (Goyal was given charge of the finance ministry a week before the occasion). The poor results in the state polls had driven home the point that farmers, the middle class, and traders and small, medium and micro enterprises—the BJP’s traditional voters—weren’t too happy with the National Democratic Front (NDA) government’s nearly five-year rule. Still smarting from demonetisation and a badly-implemented goods and services tax (GST), they wanted relief. And the government obliged with a spate of sops.

Distressed farmers were the first on the list of the NDA government’s beneficiaries. The Budget promised a 75,000 crore package for small and marginal farmers—with landholdings of up to two hectares—for next year and an additional 20,000 crore this year that would be deposited directly into their bank accounts. Called the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PMKISAN), the scheme will provide direct income support of 6,000 per year to nearly 120 million families in three instalments.