There are different methods which are used to rate a budget. One easy method is to note the response of a prominent person and then to interpret the message the person betrays. Prannoy Roy is a fail-safe bellwether.
If Roy criticises a government move, one can safely conclude that the move is positive. If he is disappointed, it means the government is on the right track.
Today he was extremely unhappy that the panellists in the post-budget discussion on NDTV Profit welcomed the budget wholeheartedly. A tax expert gave 7 to 8 out of 10 for the budget. The discussion was anchored by Srinivasan Jain who always obliges his boss. Even he could not extract negative comments from the discussants. Roy nudged Kiran Mazumdar - Shaw saying that she always comes up with the best observation. All that she could say was that she expected some incentives for R & D in private sector which were not offered.
In hindsight, it appears that everyone was expecting introduction of Corona cess. It was a big relief that it is not there. Roy had to find something negative. Otherwise he would not justify his raison-d'etre. He found two and not just one. The first criticism from him was 'what matters is implementation' and not the contents of the budget ! This is true for any budget. The second denunciation was that some expenditure was related to 3 or 5 years and not just one year. "She cleverly mentioned the amount and then sotto voce said 'in three years' " Prannoy Roy knows this trick because he employs this often.
The Finance Minister must be happy that her budget has made Prannoy Roy unhappy.
No comments:
Post a Comment