Presenting his third Union Budget for the UPA-2 government, in the backdrop of rising inflation, rising current account deficit and with Assembly elections looming in four states and the Union territory of Puducherry, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee appears to have kept his focus on the “aam aadmi”, the rural sector and on tax reform.
With corruption cases tumbling out of the UPA’s closet denting the government’s image, the finance minister said a Group of Ministers was looking into the corruption issue and it had to be “fought collectively”. The GoM is expected to suggest measures towards this end and possible changes in the law. Corruption is likely to be one of the critical planks against the Congress in all the states going to the polls — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Mr Mukherjee’s home state of West Bengal.
The finance minister said the GoM had been tasked with addressing issues relating to “state funding of elections”, “speedier processing of corruption cases of public servants”, “transparency in public procurement and contracts” and examining the “discretionary powers of Central ministers”, among other matters.
Given that Muslims constitute a significant chunk of the population in the four states going to the polls (Kerala 25 per cent; West Bengal 19.5 per cent; Tamil Nadu and Assam 12.5 per cent each), the finance minister announced a series of sops for the minorities, including a `3,000-crore grant for handloom weavers, as well as increased priority lending from 13.6 per cent to 15 per cent.
With food inflation hurting the “aam aadmi”, the finance minister has kept his focus on agriculture — announcing an extra allocation to boost production of essential food items and increase the flow of credit to farmers. Impetus has also been given to the health, education and social sectors by substantial increases in allocations.
With the government under attack from all quarters over the issue of black money, the finance minister noted in his speech that “the generation and circulation of black money is an area of serious concern. To deal with this effectively, the government has put into operation a five-fold strategy, which consists of joining the global crusade against black money.” However, he did not announce any major step to tackle this.
With two states in eastern India — West Bengal and Assam — due to hold polls this summer, the finance minister has decided to continue with the Centre’s special agri-package. Like last year, he announced a `400 crore allocation to usher in a “green revolution” for the eastern region, which besides West Bengal and Assam also includes Bihar, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and eastern Uttar Pradesh. But the bulk of this year’s expenditure is expected to be directed towards the two election-bound states.