Is the General Budget people-friendly?

The 2010-11 budget is disappointing. It will further burden poor and middle-class. The cut in fertiliser subsidy would lead to increase in price of fertiliser, resulting in an adverse impact on growth of agriculture. The Centre has failed to come out with effective programmes to boost agriculture growth and to take effective steps to control inflation. The plan to mobilise Rs 46,000 crore by increasing excise duty by two per cent on items mainly consumed by the common man will only result in a spurt in prices of essential commodities. The hike in prices of petroleum products will worsen the price rise situation. This is anti-people.
Any increase in prices of petroleum products will be an indirect tax and have a cascading effect on the prices of all commodities. This is not a budget for the common people.
This will only lead to more trouble for them as they are reeling under price rise. In the backdrop of soaring food prices, there is no mention whatsoever about the much promised scheme of delivery of rice and wheat to the common people at Rs three per kg. Prices would further escalate with rise in prices of diesel, petrol, fertiliser, cement and steel and directly affect the poor, farmers, labourers and common people. The proposals are anti-poor and aimed at encouraging hoarding.
Prakash Shrivastava
 
The general budget is one of the greatest features of Indian democracy to help and attain  overall growth of the people of India. This also helps bridging the  economic disparities among different  communities, sectors. Financial resources  of the Govt are levied through  taxes, duties,  surcharge, etc to meet  expenses of the Govt to run the administration smoothly. Price increase  on petrol and diesel never used to be a budget exercise, but this is the first time  prices  have been increased  through budget,  which will definitely  result in additional  rise on prices  of essential commodities, which will  directly  increase the  financial burden  of public.
Budget cannot be prepared for  purely benefiting for the masses since  there are various  sectors  which  acutely need financial aid. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has stressed  the need of several measures to counter the negative fall-out  of the global slowdown on the Indian economy. Middle  class people got a sigh of relief on this budget announcement as the  slab of Income Tax has been raised   so that they can save money each year and consume more and also would be encouraged  to pay taxes on time without trying to evade  the same.
Announcement of opening of banking  to private sector is not a far sighted step as  many private banks like Charminar Bank, Global Trust Bank etc   closed as such poor  middle class men, lost money and many of them committed suicide.  So the budget could be viewed as partial  people-friendly.
C Rajendran

On the budget and prices of commodities, experts in the field, politicians, political thinkers and the common man have made meticulous analyses. There may be no end to debates over price rise and benefit of the people.
It's a well-known fact that Le' Capone the underworld drug king of the US could not be brought to book by the American law as no evidence whatsoever was forthcoming against him. He used to get crime committed by his goons and some of them were caught and punished but he escaped. It was only the Income Tax laws of America that humbled Capone. This illustration and many more should be the guidelines for any Government that wants to do good to the common man, people at large to equip its Income Tax, Customs and Central Excise and anti-corruption agencies with full freedom to act also ensuring surveillance over the employees  charged with herculean task. Once the amassing of black money is hindered the salaried class, the labour class and all other honest people shall benefit immensely.
SN Patra   

The present general budget has given some relief to Income Tax payers of all classes.  Government plans to increase the GDP.  The public welfare schemes have been given more priority in the budget.  Provision of Rs 66,100 crores expenditure on rural development projects in the budget show paying more attention to agricultural sector. The budget allocation of 19.37% in education programmes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and healthcare for being more friendly beneficial with general public.  Provision in defence has also been increased by 4%. There has been an increment of 6% in plan and 15% in new plan expenditure of the total expenditure. The Union budget pegged the fiscal deficit at 5.5% in the budget 2010-11. The budget has given more focus on key sectors in the economy.
Praising the Budget, Prime Minister said "Well done Pranab, very good budget". S  Mahalingam, TCS said lot of positives in the Budget. Vallabh Bhanshalai said Budget "balanced, pragmatic." The Sensex shot up over 300 points on positive news from the Union Budget. Most experts are of the view that Pranab Mukherjee has presented an extremely balanced Budget. Dr. Naushad Forebes, Chairman, CII, Western Region said that the Union budget 2010-11 has met industry expectations. Madhu Kela, Head Equity Investments, Reliance Mutual Fund said that  the Issuance of bank to NBFC is a   positive move. But the general public are disappointed with increases in excise duty, fuel charges, etc.
The budget in general is in the right direction and  balanced  one on the present Indian economic point of view.
KY  Jacob
 
The budget presented by the Union Government is not people-friendly. It has been the same for every second or third year of the rule by a particular political party. When there is no fear of any elections or a threat to lose majority in the Lok Sabha, the Government comes out with a budget which provides them the maximum of revenue through indirect taxes.
Right from our independence, for most part of the time, the Congress party has been ruling the country. The opposition parties did not get sufficient time to formulate an economic policy of their own. Corruption having been common to all parties, economic policies did not vary.
Our Prime Minister said two things immediately after the budget was presented by the Finance Minister- 1. `My impression is that the hike in prices of petrol will do good to the economy' and 2. `Our economy is solid enough to withstand the increase in prices of petrol and diesel. It is worthwhile to notice the first statement because the Finance Minister is very much a  part of the Council of Ministers and the Prime Minister is the head, `primus inter pares'. 
On the second statement it may be good for the growth of the economy but what will be the fate of crores and crores of poor people has been carefully omitted.
Today migratory labour sleeps under the open sky and eats only `roti, mirch and namak'. With the growth of economy their wages have increased but they are not able to eat anything more than this.
The wealthy people who indulge in earning black money do not simply bother about their expenses because they spend from black money. As against this the salaried class suffers the most because its income is accounted for  and they cannot evade income tax.
Rise in the price of petrol and diesel has a spiraling effect in pushing up the prices of all essential commodities. Whether you import sugar and pulses and claim to have huge stocks of foodgrains, the prices which shot up to a level will not decline. The middle man and the graft machinery will ensure that a decline, if at all it comes through in the prices of essential commodities, may register a small decline like a lip service.
Lalit Shrivastava 

It is a very balanced general Budget. It's very friendly to general people and impressive, how the two competing priorities have been reconciled and there is no doubt everybody has welcomed it. We are all hoping that investment sentiment would be revived and consumption demand also would grow. So these are the two broad components that has already gone up- the per capita income has gone up. Real income has gone up by 5.3% odd and that augurs well. But the issue lies in whether the consumption demand will continue to grow and whether investment demand equally would grow because with investment demand comes the demand for more jobs and more jobs lead to more wages and more income and therefore more consumption so virtuous cycle need to be unleashed.
We have been severely impacted by the Budget in one of our businesses. In fact the minority people are hopeful in every budget for their future development as the budget figures are always in increasing order but it is only for show, on the contrary their development is never cared and the resultant development is always un-accountable, never friendly to the poor minorities. Let us hope this general budget may come true friendly for minorities too.
Dr Visal A Khan 

When one talks of budget, an annual feature that cuts both ways, there is no euphoria as such, particularly in these days when the thrust is not on people friendliness but how much politics can be made out of it. Even now, a crucial debate was expected from eminent members of parliament, cutting across party lines, to bare out the nuances or the nitty-gritty of various budget proposals, but, sadly, opposition parties are on the look out on one particular issue "the price rise and are lobbying how to troop out allies from the ruling combination. No discussion, worth the name, is taking place in parliament except hullabaloo, trooping down to the well of the House to make the government roll back the fuel price hike.
It is quite interesting in this context to note even a dissent note from within the family of the Union Finance Minister, as his own daughter, through an open letter, asked for certain very specific aspects like animal welfare, security of women, irresponsible social behaviour of some people and her own demand for more pocket money. The shrewd father, as Pranabda, he replied his daughter - Munni in such eloquence that appeared in print must be read to believe his articulation of perspectives.
Coming back to the question 'is the general budget people friendly'; one can say both 'yes' as well as 'no'. Yes, because our Stock Markets are booming post budget and that surely indicates the budget is growth-oriented. But, that growth is again an indicator of the growth in our service/manufacturing sectors only but the ironical part to say 'no' is because of the ever-declining growth in the agriculture sector, the real backbone of Indian economy till a decade ago.
The dismal decline in the agriculture sector growth in last fiscal to the abysmal level of 1.6% of GDP is a real cause for worry and, while I am writing this, in my own State - Kerala, farmers of paddy growing Kuttanad (Alleppy district) are in dire straits, as all their expectations of a bumper harvest this season have been dashed, as a typical fly/creature started damaging it and most of the farmers have invested heavy amounts taken on loan. Now, who is to be blamed for such natural damages of crops, the finance minister of Central or States? This is not an isolated example. In the same State, in its eastern Idukki district, farmers of cash crops like pepper, cardamom and other spices too are facing similar problem.
Agricultural scientists and environmentalists are attributing these to the much discussed 'climate change' phenomenon. The cumulative impact of all these would be that to rescue such farmers from committing suicide, the government will have to write off their loans that again would add more strain on our economy. The greatest pressure on any government that would come up after the current one, if voted out on the price rise issue, would be to tackle such problems. All our positive growth gained ie the current finance minister aspires for a 9-11% growth in next fiscal would negate if the growth in agriculture sector plummets further. All emerging scenarios point towards that possibility only, as the summer hardly had set in, our dams, water bodies are fast drying up. Kerala is reportedly facing the worst drought situation right now; despite it receiving a full monsoon. One can evaluate any budget, taking into account only such perspectives, to determine whether it is people-friendly or otherwise.
RK Kutty  
 
On the current budget government is facing an angry back lash by the opposition parties in the house. Rising prices of essential commodities have also compelled public to conceptualize that the present budget is not up to the mark.
But keeping in view the question `Our general budget is people friendly or not?" When we examine our budget thoroughly well we come to the conclusion that it is neither smash hit nor completely failure from this point of view, it is so so.In this budget our finance minister has changed the slab of net taxable income which is given below in old and new slab.
Net taxable income -old- -new slab
Rs-1.6 lakh--nil nil
Rs i.6 to 3 lakh 10% 10%
Rs 3to 5lakh 20% 10%
Rs 5 to 8 lakh 30% 20%
Rs 8 lakh 30% 30%
Above mention slabs are in the interest of tax payers but due to increase in excise duties and by bringing other services in the tax banner, the tax payers will not get much benefit of changed net taxable slabs. Apart from this in petrol and diesel cost Rs 2.90 and 2.80 has increased. Prices of cement, tobacco, gold silver etc have also gone up in this budget.
In new budget cost of cars, two wheelers and some electronic items has increased, while there is decreased in the cost of ready made garments, mobile phones watches and medical apparatus etc. In the current budget there is relief to tax payers, priority to the development of rural areas and benefit to farmers. As a whole our budget is not bad but it is not praise worthy in the opinion of general public.
S Zia Ul Hasan Naqvi 

The Union General Budget presented by  Pranab Mukherjee on 26 Feb 2010, while indicating a clear roadmap for all-inclusive growth in the future, was a mixed bag of concessions and price escalation of items generally used by the citizens. He announced substantial increases in allotments for Education, Social Welfare, Health and Agriculture, activities that directly impact on the common people. However he also conceded that the real success of various schemes would only be possible with better governance and accountability.
Introduction of the new Direct Tax Code, GST and Company regulation by 2011 was also his aim. Another major objective was to extend the Rights of Information, Work and Education to Food Security. These are also likely to benefit the people in the long run. Many concessions for the Farm and Infrastructure sectors were also announced.
On the direct and indirect Tax front, he provided pleasant surprise in increasing the No tax limit to Rs 1,60,000 and only 10% tax there after up to 5 Lakhs. The next slab of 20% saw made applicable up to 8 Lakhs. Introduction of Saral 2 form for IT returns for salaried class was also announced. In the Indirect Tax portion the aim seemed to increase the burden on higher middle class and above. However the excise increase on Petrol and Diesel, even though by a small amount, is bound to impact the cost of all common user items. This naturally would upset the home budget of people.
Overall it was a mixed bag of giving by one hand and taking back, probably much more, by the other. For taking up large socially important projects the government does need funds. With the increase of salary structure of government and organized sector, it is but natural for the prices to increase to some extent. But the weak monsoon and rocketing prices of items of mass consumption that have necessarily to be imported, made the inflation to increase rapidly. If growth of 8-9 % is achieved during the year, the money reaches in the hand of those for whom it is meant and not in the hands of middle men and corrupt officials, the agriculture production improves, the monsoon is normal, terrorism and Naxal attacks are controlled and global atmosphere remains generally conducive to growth, then this budget could turn out to be a success story for common people.
AB Mehta 

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