Chandigarh, June 21: Loan waiver for small and marginal farmers, smartphones and cabs for youth, hike in old age, disabled and other pensions from Rs 500 to Rs 750, shagun on marriage of girls from Rs 15,000 to Rs 21,000 and tea and sugar along with subsidised atta-dal. The Congress tried to meet its major poll promises halfway in its maiden budget presented on Tuesday.
The party’s poll manifesto had promised to double pensions Rs 1,000, shagun amount to Rs 31,000 and complete loan waiver for farmers. This when the white the paper presented by finance minister Manpreet Badal on Monday projected state’s growth rate for 2016-17 below the national average at 5.9%, tax growth 10% below target last year and the debt over 400% of the revenue receipts for this year.
As the state of finances continue to be grim, Manpreet’s choices may not have changed much since 2010, when he had rebelled against his family and party, Shiromani Akali Dal, questioning free power to farmers as the finance minister.
But as the Congress FM, he chose good politics over good economics, populism over prudence. Having set the tone for austerity in its first three months in power, the government’s first budget also did not give a direction on how the government would curb expenses or generate more revenue.
But it did give an indication of the road the finance minister intends to take in the coming budgets — he staggered the funds for poll promises, deferred expenditure on some and wants us to believe that the new government will not “cook the books” like its predecessor.
News Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com
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