JAITLEY’S JUST-DO-IT BUDGET EMPOWERS INVESTORS, SOCIETY
Nantoo Banerjee
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2014-07-11 10:55
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has followed Nike’s most inspiring line for the sports world, Just Do It, as the guiding spirit behind his and the NDA II’s first national budget. Arithmetically, the size of the Modi government’s expenditure budget in the first year is Rs. 17,95,000 crore. The government budget is all about the annual government expenditure and allocations. Revenue is raised to meet the expenditure target. The revenue gap or deficit, then, met with borrowings, domestic or overseas. Jaitley has promised fiscal prudence and to try to live within the means, cutting on borrowings and also subsidies. For instance, the petroleum sector subsidies are to be compressed by Rs. 20,000 cr. and the government spending on MNREGA, the UPA’s pet rural employment generation programme, may be much less as it will be specifically linked to agriculture related activities. The government will not treat social sector spending as ‘doles’. It will be linked to tangible asset creation. “We can’t leave a legacy of debt for our future generations,” the finance minister said and left a major portion of the task to grow the economy to the corporate sector and entrepreneurs, local and foreign. The government has opened up the economy, wide.