Five ways in which this budget should be emulated by future budgets
The risk of praising the government in a column like this is immediately being labelled a ‘bhakt’. Sure, one should criticise shortcomings of a government or its policies. However, should praise not be given when it is due? The recently announced budget for FY23-24 was indeed the best budget of all the nine annual budgets presented by the current government so far. In five areas in particular the government deserves genuine praise.
Fiscal prudence
This was the last budget the government would present before getting into full-blown 2024 Lok Sabha election mode. It is exactly these pre-election-year budgets that in the past have been used to issue sops, subsidies and freebies to get votes. Indeed it is so normal to have sop-friendly pre-election budgets that budget analysts expected the same this time too. The TV experts would have pre-prepared such post-budget statements as, ‘Fiscal responsibility was not shown, but one can understand, given it is an election year.’
Fiscal prudence
This was the last budget the government would present before getting into full-blown 2024 Lok Sabha election mode. It is exactly these pre-election-year budgets that in the past have been used to issue sops, subsidies and freebies to get votes. Indeed it is so normal to have sop-friendly pre-election budgets that budget analysts expected the same this time too. The TV experts would have pre-prepared such post-budget statements as, ‘Fiscal responsibility was not shown, but one can understand, given it is an election year.’