Budget...!

Without burdening you with numbers, I urge you look at the Budget Estimates and Revised Estimates for 2024-25 and the proposed Budget Estimates for 2025-26 for the following programmes/schemes. They clearly indicate that 

(i) the government has lost faith in these programmes announced with fanfare in the previous Budget speeches.

(ii) the government’s capacity has significantly diminished.

Examples are POSHAN, Jal Jeevan Mission, NSAP, PMGSY, Crop Insurance Scheme, Urea Subsidy, and PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana.

The Railways have been shortchanged. If you examine the Railway specific heads of expenditure, you will find that  

BE 2024-25 was Rs 2,06,961 crore  

RE 2024-25 is Rs 2,12,786 crore 

BE 2025-26 is  Rs 2,13,552 crore   

Railways serve the overwhelming majority of the population. The increase of a paltry Rs 766 crore in 2025-26 will not even account for the inflation. The allocation will  be less than  last year’s allocation.  

On the much-vaunted PLI schemes plus New Employment Generation Scheme plus Skill India programme that were promised to create thousands of jobs, the youth of this country have been deceived.

Against a BE 2024-25 of Rs 26,018 crore, the actual expenditure will be only Rs 15,286 crore.  

Finally, it is evident that neither the FM nor the PM care for the advice of the Chief  Economic Adviser. He gave sensible advice in the Economic Survey.  “Get out of the way” was his call to the government.  On the contrary, the Budget is full of new schemes and programmes, many of which are beyond the capacity of this                       government. 

I counted at least 15 new Schemes or programmes and 4 new Funds. The FM is walking on the worn-out path. She is not willing to break  free as we did in 1991 and 2004. She is not willing to de-regulate. She is not willing to get out of the way of the people, especially the entrepreneurs and the MSMEs and  the start-ups. The bureaucracy will be happy with this Budget. 

In closing, I would like to say that the economy will trudge along on the old path and deliver no more than the usual 6 or 6.5 per cent growth in 2025-26. 

That, in our view, is a government with no new ideas and no will to reach beyond its grasp.

: Rajya Sabha MP and Former Finance Minister Shri PChidambaram