The striking aspect of the NDA government’s last full Budget is a lack of clarity on policy measures and the absence of commitment of resources to back them up.
BILLED AS THE LAST FULL BUDGET OF THE second National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, Budget 2018 was not expected to surprise.
The leadership of the government might be pleased with having played, in nearly four years of its tenure, with programmes varying from “Make in India” to Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, experimented with demonetisation, and launched the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. But while none of these immediately benefited the “common man”, some of them like demonetisation actually hit the vulnerable, and GST disrupted production and damaged the operations of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). There was also evidence that agriculture had been neglected and allowed to languish over the last four years, which led to farmers’ agitations. Moreover, the feeling on the ground was that the real economy was not doing well, notwithstanding gross domestic product (GDP) projections and the pre-Budget, speculation-driven boom in the stock market.
Given the circumstances in which it was unveiled, it was obvious that the primary thrust of the Budget would be corrective action that offered some succour to the large mass of the deprived in India, with some focus on the agricultural sector and small industry. In advancing this agenda, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had to go beyond the belief that had served the NDA in the early phases of its tenure—that propaganda combined with the oratory of a couple of demagogues can replace real policy action when seeking popular support. But if he chose to adopt redistributive policies, he needed to make sure that he did not, in the process, lose the support of Indian big business, which financially and through the use of a corporate-controlled media contributed much to the NDA’s cultivated legitimacy.
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