A Budget that could have been better

The National Budget for 2023-24 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Parliament on Wednesday will be noted for cut back of expenditure on the rural job guarantee scheme, next to nil enhancement of allocation for the public health sector and the stark absence of mention of employment generation. It stands out for effulgent references to Amrit Kaal, a 25-year era beginning from the 75th Independence Day that the nation observed in 2022.

That hi-tech occupies the core of the Modi Government’s perception of Amrit Kaal is evident from the domination of ‘digital’, ‘infrastructure’, ‘Artificial Intelligence’, ‘robotics’, ‘investment’, ‘capital’ in the budget lexicon. Text analysts have not failed to note that the word Amrit appeared 12 times while infrastructure (26 times), Digital (21) and Green (21) during her speech. In contrast, the word ‘farmer’ appeared just 15 times. T

he Budget deserves appreciation for raising the limit of income from Rs. 5 lakh to Rs. 7 lakh for Income Tax as it would provide relief and allow better income for the taxpayers. The Indian Railways stand out for receiving a big boost, almost twofold, from Rs. 1.40 lakh crore in the previous budget to Rs. 2.40 lakh crore this time, which needs to be lauded.

Other welcome features include appointment of 38,000 teachers for Eklavya Schools; setting up of a National Digital Library for children and adolescents; decision to start 157 nursing colleges in locations where a similar number of medical colleges came up during the last nine years; increase of outlay for Pradhan Mantri Away Yojana by 66 percent; decision to launch a Mission to take up elimination of sickle cell anaemia by 2047 in the tribal areas; and support for the Millet Research Institute as a centre of excellence.

Most of these coming under what is branded as ‘saptarishi’ objectives of the Budget, are designed to promote inclusive development, first of the seven aims defined by the Budget. Huge infrastructural outlays during election years are no longer a surprise. It is doubtful if all that the Budget allocates for the purpose is warranted by actual needs. The development of 50 airports, helipads and water-dromes is simply too ambitious to be envisioned at the current stage.

Several of the small towns that came on the air-map under the UDAN scheme have proved to be unviable and quietly dropped off the map in the recent years. Transition to the Green Technology is the step in right direction. Outlay of nearly Rs. 20,000 crore for National Hydrogen Mission in pursuit of the goal of ‘net zero’ emission following India’s commitment to Paris Agreement on Climate-Change can be termed a maiden step towards the goal.

Setting up of 10,000 bio input resources centres and 500 new waste-to-wealth plants under Gobardhan Scheme scales up the traditional wisdom to national level. Karnataka has to contend only with allocation of Rs. 5,300 crore for the Upper Bhadra Project designed to bring Tungabhadra Project to arid districts of central Karnataka. The Budget document has failed to mention Bengaluru this time. Regrettably, allocation for the public health sector has seen no distinct enhancement.

Rs. 89,155 crore for the department of health and family welfare is just about 0.34% higher than last year’s Rs. 86,200 crore. In fact, the allocation for health research is lower than what was set aside in the last Budget. Cigarettes have been the notorious victims of taxation and the Finance Minister cannot be faulted for 16% hike on this score. Incidentally, it is after three years that it has come in for some punitive action.