Budget a cosmetic exercise

To address the issues concerning a country like India and to fulfil the real vision of inclusive growth and proper economic development as well as for the proper distribution of the financial resources to various sectors of the economy as well as the various class of the society budget becomes a necessity for India.

 

Critics have argued that the annual budgetary exercise becomes a huge financial burden for a poor and a developing country like India and India can very well do away with such a huge exercise of such huge financial expenses and concentrate her energy more on the proper utilization of the scarce capital resource and seek efficient and best possible ways of distributing it within the huge population of this country with such huge socio-economic disparity. But the critics fail to understand for efficient and proper distribution of the limited amount of capital and financial resources a annual planning process with a proper methodology is required with proper auditing and accounting of it which can be done only through a annual budget as such the budgetary exercise becomes all the more vital. Even for the smooth running of a family a weekly, monthly and a yearly budget is required same is the case with a nation which is a huge house of crores of families in it as such a annual budget becomes all the more vital .

 

Again many other critics have argued that many nations do not have an annual budget even then they have progressed so well if they can do it then why not India. But one has to realize in the Indian context that India is a much more complex country where the socio-cultural-economic and geographical pattern changes every 100 KMS so to compare India with those smaller nations of the world like Andorra, Luxembourg, Tonga, Samoa and others would mean doing injustice with a complex nation like India.

 

In India for proper economic development and for proper distribution of the capital resources it becomes very vital for the Union and the State governments to formulate a proper annual budget so that issues and concerns related to the poor marginal and deprived section of the society is not only taken care off but is also addressed and handled properly. There are many areas of the country which are semi backward or extremely backward and far flung from the mainstream for example states like Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, the North East, Andaman and Nicobar which are not only remote and far flung but backward as well at the same time these areas are very sensitive for the Indian nation strategically and geographically as such proper economic development of such areas and getting them connected with the mainstream heartland of the country becomes very vital issues concerning such areas can be addressed only through a Union Budget. .

 

(The writer is a renowned television celebrity, economic, foreign policy expert and a political critic).