Budget postmortem by a compounder

Free Thinker *

We all agree "health is wealth". But, making cigarettes costlier will have more effect on the wealth. A fish-eating community of the country will be impacted more.

Again, poor people of Manipur and a vast majority of Northeast population who are largely dependent on khaini and Zarda will have to spend more. This is an indication that now-a-days tobacco lobby is no more very strong in the country. Hiking the price of tobacco products will not reduce consumption of tobacco.

We have the experience with liquor; prohibition does not stop drinking. Instead it induces a kind of lucrative business beneficial to a few daring personalities.

The train tickets are cheaper now if you book the ticket on-line. That's good news. But how can people go to the nearest train stations at Dhimapur, Jiribam , Silcher, Guwahati etc. for boarding when they are under ceased inside the State(Manipur)? Common people talk about budget in terms of prices of the commodities (up or down).

Middle and salaried class discuss budget pertaining to reliefs and hikes in personal income tax, interest rates etc. Rich people, tycoons, leaders and dons don't bother about the estimated income and expenditure of the government (country). The projections are not virtually relevant to them.

But, just for the sake of showing their importance they make some commence here and there; they remain ready with a catchy one-liner for the purpose of public consumption via conventional media or social media which includes twitting.

For instance, "this is a very balanced budget"; such a statement is normally made by those who are eagerly waiting for a favor. "This is a landmark budget and it has taken care of everyone ", such an utterance will come out from those who are benefitted from the present dispensation.

Left oriented reactions are normally "it is anti-poor, anti-farmer and anti- labor etc.". We also come across some expressions from pseudo-intellectuals (like me), "see, there are good things and bad things, but overall, the finance minister has made an attempt to maneuver in this tough time to deliver ".

Obviously, those who are getting butter and burfi now will certainly support the budget. They will highlight the positive sides of the budget. And those who are not so lucky or side-lined will normally criticized the budget. Such a thing is quite common and such a scenario repeats every year.

There is nothing new about it. Those who are neither here or there simply grumble and utter nonsense about the good, the bad and ugly of the budget; they don't care because they are not taken care of.

There are certain novel things about this year's budget. This is the first time the Union General Budget is presented on the first day of February instead of the usual last day of February.

I really appreciate this initiative because of the very fact that we are gradually coming out of the Colonial practices and clutches. In the last NDA avatar led by amiable Atalji the 5pm (i.e. 11.30 am in London, prime business hour) presentation of budget was done away with and started the presentation at 11am.

Another Colonial thing which is weaseled out this time is the scraping of the separate Rail Budget. Now the rail budget is clubbed with of the General Budget.

Bravo! Digitization will be a reality now because by 2018 all the villages (100%) in the country are going to be electrified. Demonetization will help the process because the government will have the required fund as it is indeed a process of transferring money from tax-evaders to the government treasury; now the process is over but the entire transaction will be completed in 2 years or so. A huge windfall is expected.

One more positive thing about demonetization is that the rural women folk are extremely happy because their sons and husbands have come back home after a long time. After the reunion and get-together, they now start going back to work in the cities as the situation is gradually limping back to normalcy.

Finance Minister hints, "everything will be normal by April". For excremental purpose, we are spending a lot of money in the construction of toilets particularly in rural areas; now the sanitation coverage has increased from 42% to 60%. I have no objection to that.

But the pertinent issue is, until and unless the habits of the people are changed these toilets can't deliver the good. A village old man says, "hello, things are not coming out in a claustrophobic room like this, I want open space".