The PM is weighing heavy on his Team. After his ‘act’, the rest seem pale indeed. The Railways Minister was not even in a similar league, but even Arun Jaitley looked like an amateur. A seemingly decent Budget came out looking like a litany of 100 crores program allocations that would not even do a CM proud. There was no element of prioritisation – of programs and therefore outlays. This, at a time, when the nation – in fact the world - was looking for the ‘difference’. To make matters worse, the 'speech' took forever. A big picture, big bang, opportunity ended as a whimper of small noises. However, it’s time to judge the content (and hopefully the intent).
The positives
- Public Sector banks ‘divestment’, consolidation, lending norms & NPA reduction
- Reduced Investment Allowance threshold
- Advance ruling applicable also for resident taxpayers
- Low cost housing
- Investment in ports
- FDI in Defence and Insurance
- Slum Development ‘allowed’ under CSR
- Multiple initiatives for the North East
- Kisan TV (it’s Krishi Darshan time again, folks)
The disappointments
- Power very inadequately addressed (maybe it was time to put this before ‘Roads & Highways’)
- Tokenism towards Urban Renewal
- How come a ‘second Green Revolution’, with a target of just 4% agriculture growth (and FM should have integrated the Agriculture/Rural story better)
- ‘Rurban’, a key initiative, has been left vaguely as a PPP project(s)
- What’s that one big item for the youth?
FM & PM: Sirs, even the Congress would have (finally) delivered 7 to 8% GDP growth in 3 to 4 years from now. Where’s the Modi-vision?
And PPP cannot be a panacea. How many of the 900 on-going projects are on track? How many will fizzle out?
Going forward, a quarterly report on status versus Budget should be mandatory – on finances, operations, outcomes and new initiatives. For this year, the first report should be out by close of October.
Have the FM and PM kept some 'surprises' off-Budget? As simple executive decisions? Like 'repackaging' the 'anti-poverty' programs and subsidies?
Parallel Tracks (Rail Budget)
The positives
- Not politically ‘tampering’ with operations
- Separate Parcel management – trains, platforms, traffic
- Operational Safety – example, reviewing unmanned crossings
- Exclusive focus on Project Management - at the Board level
- Compulsory e-procurement beyond Rs 25 lakhs value
- Various online applications for customers
- PPP projects approval at Zonal level
- A new University for Railways
- Connectivity with ports
The disappointments
- No ‘big bang’ freight plan or initiative – despite identifying it as a key concern, and the carriage of freight being a profitable operation
- At least 1 worthwhile PPP or FDI project should have already been identified – rather than offering a ‘generic’ plan for this
- If the idea was to not pander and to make a valid point about hundreds of project backlogs, why announce 50+ trains? Why not under 10 - at least for this first year?
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