Budget lacks vision

Budget 2019 should make us look askance at a government voted in the second time with an even greater mandate, as the presentation appeared to be that of a hesitant coalition. There was no over-arching theme for Modi 2.0 nor even a delineation of persisting core concerns of the economy. They were left unaddressed even as peripherals got selective treatment. Fiscal deficit was not even mentioned.

At least the running problems could have had mention. Consumption is no longer fuelled by the lower-income segment which is losing its purchase power, the middle-class keeps away from white goods on uncertainties of the future and the upper strata is waiting for better times.

Spending does not create wealth, production does. There was an opportunity to promote a healthy pool of savings to add wealth and jobs. What is needed is an astute mix in policy approach that channels funds to the lower strata, enables savings to the next, and calibrated tax incentives for the job-creating capital — and not the tax sops announced. The Budget turned out to be one of appending administrative orders, and not of laying out a vision or theme.

Navi Mumbai

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman deserves praise for presenting a pragmatic Budget by factoring all the challenges confronting the country’s economy at present. It’s heartening that the Budget has measures to address economic slowdown and boost consumption. While acknowledging and appreciating measures to boost zero-budget farming, which lays emphasis on use of sustainable agriculture practices, one should not be oblivious to the absence of concrete steps to double farmers’ income on the ground. The absence of any substantial increase in public investment in education and health is disappointing.

Sholavandan, TN

This year’s Budget has not taken the beaten track of awarding too many tax sops. Instead, it has rightly focussed on the needs of the common man — affordable housing, electrification, and the like. Raising the income-tax threshold limit from ₹2.50 lakh to ₹5 lakh will come as a major relief for many lower income salary earners.

Start-ups have been given a lot of incentives and this, in a way, will ease the unemployment problem. The corporate sector has got over 5 per cent tax concession — for firms with turnover up to ₹400 crore. To stimulate the real estate sector, the Budget has handed out an additional deduction of up to ₹1.5 lakh for interest paid on affordable housing loans.

Overall, the Budget has given every sector a slice of the cake on a platter.

Bengaluru

After such a massive victory in the general elections by the BJP, much was expected from the Budget. But it has turned out to be a total disappointed. While the Finance Minister used a sizeable portion of the Budget to eulogise the BJP government and sing the praise of Prime Minister Modi, she failed to enthuse the listeners with any concrete proposals to boost the economy of the country.

The Budget disappointed the agricultural sector, SMEs and even heavy industries. This is not a Budget for the aam aadmi but for the affluent. The fiscal deficit percentage quoted is highly debatable and the $5 trillion economic growth envisaged, highly utopian.

Chennai

This refers to ‘Rebooting growth without blowing the fisc’ (July 5). The need of the hour is to make farming sustainable for smallholders, as they together form a major chunk of the farming community. The IBA (Indian Banks Association), IDRBT and WDRA (Warehousing Development and Regularity Authority) could come together on a platform to incentivise a system of financing against definite values of warehousing receipts for mainly smallholder farmers.

Vadodara

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Send your letters by email to bleditor@thehindu.co.in or by post to ‘Letters to the Editor’, The Hindu Business Line, Kasturi Buildings, 859-860, Anna Salai, Chennai 600002.

COMMENT NOW