Budget and Gen Next: Problems and wishlists

BUDGETING FOR FUTURE: CNN-IBN panel debates and discussed the various aspects of Indian economy.

                  

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The Union Budget is around the corner and the anticipation is reaching a fever pitch. Will the Finance Minister roll out a dream, never-heard-of Budget or will he play it safe and populist in an election year?

CNN-IBN debated and discussed the various aspects of Indian economy and the expectations from the Budget on a special show Budget and Gen Next, conducted by Business Editor Paromita Chatterjee.

The focus of the show was to address important questions and problems with a ‘Young India’ perspective. To discuss the issue was an eminent panel comprising, Prasanjit Bose of CPM, Sandeep Dikshit of Congress, economist Ila Pattaniak, National Tax Director for Ernst and Young, Gaurav Tanjea and Sanjeev Bhikchandani of naukri.com.

The audience comprised of young: management students drawn from institutes across the country and chartered accountants..

Has UPA dream team lived up to expectations?

That was the first among the questions raised on the show. A snap poll among the audience showed that nearly 70 per cent of them felt the UPA govt hadn not lived up to its expectations.

When they took over, the economy was really taking off. So has UPA been able to exploit that potential? Bhikchandani agreed they had been able to do it consistently. "I think it's a good situation that we've got such a good growth rate. Bit it's also important to ensure that inflation is kept low while the growth is maintained. The one important thing is to include all sectors of economy in that growth."

But he also agreed it was a tough ask. Gaurav Taneja too agreed that the economic situation was pretty good when UPA came to power so it would be only fair to give it to them. "But having said that it's easy to screw up the situation. So it's important to build up on that." He also said while the first generation reforms were low hanging fruits and came easy, it's the second stage which was more challenging.

Has govt followed safe politics over good economics?

Ila Patnaik said the time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining and she wasn’t too happy with the government’s way of functioning. “You could have done a lot more like financial sector reforms. This team -- given that the skills it has -- could have done a lot more,” she said.

Sandeep Dikshit however did not agree with Patnaik’s observations and said he wanted to know what refors were they all talking about. “For me the most spectacular thing has been the amounts of money the government has sent to rural areas both through NREGS and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan,” Dikshit said, adding that irrigation programmes have also been successful.

The biggest disappointments

Prasenjit Bose said that as an ally, he felt the measures taken by government for rural areas – and the ones cited by Dikshit – were half- hearted. “I wont say nothing has been done, they are many areas that are left. But someone’s dreams can become others’ nightmare.”

Patnaik said the “PM said we will improve delivery of services and governance. Till today, they are talking about expenditure.”

Many students in the audience said they were willing to pay taxes – the cess on education for example – provided there was accountability at the government’s level.

Bose said pitting one problem against the other won’t work and the solution was to hit at the root of the problem and figure out a solution. “ You don’t chop off your head when you have a headache,” he cited as example.

Patnaik said it was important to improve upon the existing resources before thinking of increasing the expenditure on other things. “I am not saying cut off anyone’s share, but also look at how things can be done and then go ahead. After all, they are spending the tax payer’s money,” she said.

Dikshit defended the government yet again and said the accountability question should be seen in the list of Bose’s statement. “As far as implementation mechanism is concerned, the PM started with it four to five years ago. None of us has been able to find a via media between bureaucracy and its self-interest and trying to do the thing that will make bureaucrats do things the way they are supposed to do,” he said, admitting it was serious failure on the “everybody’s” part.