Well balanced and informative article!In the budget we see a strong commitment to fiscal deficit consolidation. Many are disappointed as there is no stimulus for consumption or the farm sector.It is unexpected as consumption growth has been subdued and elections are round the corner.
There is a clear message from the government that priority is long term macro economic stability, even if some some short term growth targets and gsins are sacrificed. There is continuance of its strategy of prioritizing Capital spending ( investment) over Revenue spending ( consumption).
PM Modi's call for "Jai Anusandhaan" and the huge amount of allocation for "Innovation " and Research and development, makes this a "Dream" Budget. This is a bold and ambitious step, of a visionary. In his speech in Parliament yesterday (5th February), the PM repeated his target of India becoming the 3rd largest economy during the next term of his tenure as PM. A bold and confident assertion. The best way to go is to lead from the front, by being a leader in new technologies and not be dependent on other nations to pass on their research work. The climate for rapid growth is in favor of India at present, as South Korea, Japan and the United States amongst other nations, will look to avoid China and may focus on India as their manufacturing industry growth. In fields like AI, Vehicle manufacturing and development of alternative energy sources, India could be a hub in the future. An excellent article Anil and congratulations on being on the interview panel for the post Budget chat with FM, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman.
Thanks Anil for this timely piece. As regards so called ''dream budget'', we have to ask whose dream and if so, is budget so do or die stuff for anyone? Every section of the society can have different dreams as budget can only play a limited role in their fulfillment. Having said this, we must now lay down a few canonical rules for our budget as we become a developed country by 2047. First should be that we must decide how much Govt can collect as taxes. We cannot a situation of Govt increasing its revenue all the time and keep on giving out doles to meet political purposes of the party in power. We must first decide what expenditure we will have and then go back and raise them through taxes, borrowing and other sources. Secondly, we must decide how much we should spend on administration cost and raise our efficiency there. Thirdly, we must ensure that we do not ever have revenue deficit in the budget. Fourthly, we should have taxes on one's total wealth or income tax which ever is higher. Given that we have Aadhar and PAN linked, we should be able to have details of PAN based wealth estimate of anyone and levy tax based on say above 3 crores at reasonable rates. No one needs to file tax returns but Govt send him income and wealth details and raises the demand. This will clean up lots of black money floating in the system. Fifthly, we have to have Bank account linked taxes on transactions for the shadow companies and entities. Sixthly, we must tax political parties for the donations they raise as we register only those political parties who contest elections. For the rest, we can find some other alternative mechanism for dealing with political activism!! lastly, let us have only 2 national holidays- 15th Aug and 26th Jan and 15 optional holidays for religious and social purposes. This will ensure that we have a disciplined working in the country. Modi has a lot to do more and he must be around for another decade at least. First term has been a rather slow progress but he picked up well in his second term. We cannot let him retire until he finishes his job!!!!
Dear Anil,
Well balanced and informative article!In the budget we see a strong commitment to fiscal deficit consolidation. Many are disappointed as there is no stimulus for consumption or the farm sector.It is unexpected as consumption growth has been subdued and elections are round the corner.
There is a clear message from the government that priority is long term macro economic stability, even if some some short term growth targets and gsins are sacrificed. There is continuance of its strategy of prioritizing Capital spending ( investment) over Revenue spending ( consumption).
PM Modi's call for "Jai Anusandhaan" and the huge amount of allocation for "Innovation " and Research and development, makes this a "Dream" Budget. This is a bold and ambitious step, of a visionary. In his speech in Parliament yesterday (5th February), the PM repeated his target of India becoming the 3rd largest economy during the next term of his tenure as PM. A bold and confident assertion. The best way to go is to lead from the front, by being a leader in new technologies and not be dependent on other nations to pass on their research work. The climate for rapid growth is in favor of India at present, as South Korea, Japan and the United States amongst other nations, will look to avoid China and may focus on India as their manufacturing industry growth. In fields like AI, Vehicle manufacturing and development of alternative energy sources, India could be a hub in the future. An excellent article Anil and congratulations on being on the interview panel for the post Budget chat with FM, Smt Nirmala Sitharaman.
Thanks Anil for this timely piece. As regards so called ''dream budget'', we have to ask whose dream and if so, is budget so do or die stuff for anyone? Every section of the society can have different dreams as budget can only play a limited role in their fulfillment. Having said this, we must now lay down a few canonical rules for our budget as we become a developed country by 2047. First should be that we must decide how much Govt can collect as taxes. We cannot a situation of Govt increasing its revenue all the time and keep on giving out doles to meet political purposes of the party in power. We must first decide what expenditure we will have and then go back and raise them through taxes, borrowing and other sources. Secondly, we must decide how much we should spend on administration cost and raise our efficiency there. Thirdly, we must ensure that we do not ever have revenue deficit in the budget. Fourthly, we should have taxes on one's total wealth or income tax which ever is higher. Given that we have Aadhar and PAN linked, we should be able to have details of PAN based wealth estimate of anyone and levy tax based on say above 3 crores at reasonable rates. No one needs to file tax returns but Govt send him income and wealth details and raises the demand. This will clean up lots of black money floating in the system. Fifthly, we have to have Bank account linked taxes on transactions for the shadow companies and entities. Sixthly, we must tax political parties for the donations they raise as we register only those political parties who contest elections. For the rest, we can find some other alternative mechanism for dealing with political activism!! lastly, let us have only 2 national holidays- 15th Aug and 26th Jan and 15 optional holidays for religious and social purposes. This will ensure that we have a disciplined working in the country. Modi has a lot to do more and he must be around for another decade at least. First term has been a rather slow progress but he picked up well in his second term. We cannot let him retire until he finishes his job!!!!