Saturday, March 02, 2013

Faulty assumption in the Budget

In the Budget presented on 28th February, Mr.P.Chidambaram claimed that he believed that there is a bit of Azim Premji in every one of us. It would have been more truthful to say that there is a bit of A.Raja and P.Chidambaram in each of us. We are more acquisitive than sacrificing, more possessive than philanthropic.

The Budget abounds in tokenism. An exclusive Bank for women! What an idea! This precedent will have to be religiously followed. Forthcoming Budgets will announce opening of exclusive Banks for minorities, linguistic and religious. It is easy to open the floodgates.

10% Surcharge on the income tax paid by the super-rich, all 42800 of them! There is no estimate of how much it will yield.

Investment Allowance of 15% will be allowed if machinery worth Rs.100 crore and above are bought by a company in the next two years. Why insist on minimum of Rs.100 crore? This is our kind of socialism favouring bigger companies as against the smaller ones.

The government continues to follow the cash system of accounting instead of accrual system. It is therefore easier to window-dress deficit ratios simply by postponing cash outflows into the next financial year.

One of the most meaningful couplets in Thirukkural says that even if income is minimal, it does not matter so long as the expenditure is not in excess. This is a couplet that Mr.Chidambaram would prefer not to quote.

1 comment:

வழிப்போக்கன் said...

A sensible analysis.
S. Krishnamoorthy