BUDGET
AT OUR GLANCE
It may be the longest ever
speech (160 minutes) in Parliament by a Union Finance Minister, but this presented
on 1 February 2020 does not look any better than the previous ones. In
fact, the budget does not take into account the continuous slide down of the
growth for the last six quarters and projects somewhat unachievable target of
6.5% growth rate and creates a delusion in the minds of the people. There is no
substantial increase in the immediate welfare benefits to the people and
DownToEarth laments that in reality the funds for women welfare programs got
constricted and Chidambaram slams it for doing nothing to create jobs for the
youths in the country with the growing unemployment rate now and terms the
budget as a ‘laundry list of old programs’. The Opposition leader Rahul Gandhi has
termed it repetitive and with no strategic idea to uplift the country, Shashi
Tharoor said there is nothing stimulating in it to give the kind of development
we need and the Marxist party concentrated mainly on the flawed thoughts and
measures on education, health care and inflation control. To us it seems
largely private corporate sector oriented, further reducing the corporate tax
burdens, in false belief that it will lead to growth and trickle down processes
for the country’s good, ever doubtful assumption. There is no reason why
corporate taxes cannot be significantly increased in a graduated scale at least
to a 40% cap and as also why income taxes cannot be increased likewise to a 60%
cap even. Whereas the US Federal Budget receives 50%, and UK about 28% from
income taxes, we just receive 17% indicating the need to widen tax base as also
increase at the higher slabs. For lower income tax payers obviously the said
concessions given prove damaging when removal of standard exemptions taken into
note. There should be a way and measure to have all incomes taxed, with lower
incomes taxed still less, and higher still more in a graduated scale. Also
expenditures on provision of basic necessities, education, public health,
employment and infrastructure for strictly necessary ends need to be increased
and streamlined and agriculture and industry promoted by incentives at the
start up phase but taxed well after they pick up and enter the profit phase.
Now almost all the agricultural landlords and capitalists are going tax free
and especially the government lavish spending and the Nawab style living of the
leaders at public expense have to be eliminated. Maybe this is just a thinking
aloud. §§§
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