indianeconomicpanorama
28 News the Newsbehind JULY 08, 2019IN
THIS
SECTION
28 EXPERT ANALYSES : UNION BUDGET 2019: SPELLS OUT THE GOVERNMENT’S VISION AND
ASPIRATIONS
35 EXPERT ANALYSES : ECONOMIC SURVEY 2018-19: “BLUE SKY THINKING”
40 STATE OF THE ECONOMY : MANUFACTURING SECTOR LOSES MOMENTUM
41 POLICY INITIATIVES : HIGHWAY CORRIDORS FOR E-VEHICLES
42 LABOUR AND ENVIRONMENT : INDIA COULD LOSE 34 M JOBS IN 2030 DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING:
ILO REPORT
43 INDUSTRY : INDIAN WORRIES ON STEEL IMPORTS
43 POWER : COAL TO DOMINATE INDIA POWER TO 2030
43 TELECOMMUNICATIONS : LEVERAGING 5G AND GROWTH
44 MONEY AND BANKING : RBI’S FINANCIAL STABILITY REPORT
TRADE : INDIA’S WIN AT RCEPEXPERT ANALYSES
UNION BUDGET 2019: SPELLS
OUT THE GOVERNMENT’S
VISION AND ASPIRATIONS
This is Finance Minister (FM)
Nirmala Sitaraman’s fi rst budget and
she is conscious that the exercise is
more than a statement of government’s
revenues and expenditures. It spells out
the government’s vision and aspirations.
In her Budget therefore, she has stuck to
the path laid out in the interim Budget
and the mantra of ‘‘unfettered sky blue”
thinking in economic survey presented
a day earlier, on Th ursday.
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Asserting that India would become
a $ 3 trillion economy in the current
fi scal itself, Nirmala outlined the various
measures that Government proposes
to take to ramp up infrastructure in
seaways, roads, airports and payment
infrastructure to realise the vision of $
5 trillion economy.
Th e road map to turn India into
a $ 5 trillion economy by 2024-25,
according to K R Srivats and Richa
Mishra writing in the Business Line, is
set to be achieved through unshackling
investments and further opening up
of the economy in terms of promised
increase in FDI in aviation, insurance
and media sectors. This will be a
challenge.
Significantly, the budget sets a
3.3% fiscal deficit target for FY20.
But the Business Line questions the
achievement of this feat, given that
the provisional actual fi gures for FY19,
released by the Controller-General of
Accounts, suggested a massive shortfall
of Rs 1.67 lakh crore in tax revenues,
in the last fi scal.
With a fi ne act of balancing and
maths, the Centre has managed to retain
both its revenue and expenditure fi gure
for FY20, as put out in the interim
Budget, thereby retaining the magic 3.3
per cent fi gure. But while the math may
well tally, there could be slippages from
the Centre’s projection for fi scal defi cit.
Even this will not be easy.
MAJOR TAKEAWAYS
Below is a compilation of other
major takeaways from the Budget
based on feedback from industry
experts and economists like ArchanaChaudhary who writes for Bloomberg
and Economic Times:
SLOGAN OF ‘VILLAGE, POOR
AND FARMER’: POLITICAL
OVERTONES
Keeping in line with the political
thrust that won the Modi government
a second term, the budget focused
on urban renewal, rural employment
generation and social welfare And
with an eye on forthcoming assembly
elections, it also promises sops to BJP’s
core voter base of traders and women.
Political considerations have weighed
strongly on its mind while promising
pensions to small traders, who form
a considerable voter base in election-
bound Delhi and Haryana.
Rural thrust: Finance minister