36 12 February 2018programmes. the new measures, he said, are designed to boost farmer incomes and welfare vastly
in accordance with the current imperative. “our philosophy was to lend support to sectors where
support was required,” Jaitley said, emphasising the role that governance had to play in ensuring
social justice even as the country emerged as an economic powerhouse. this call for fair play won
the Minister plaudits around the hall, as evident in the comments voiced by various attendees.
In the weeks preceding the Union Budget for 2018-19, there had been intense speculation about
‘populist’ proposals in the works. historically, the last full budget of an incumbent government in
India has involved a spending spree, with sops dished out to all constituencies from farmers and
labourers to middle-class tax payers and others. the resulting hole in the finances is left for the next
government to worry about. those who were expecting such a budget were disappointed by Jaitley,
who resisted wanton profligacy for the sake of future stability. the fiscal slippage for 2017-18 was
restricted to 0.3 per cent of GdP; while last year’s budget had aimed for 3.2 per cent, the actual figure
reported on February 1st is 3.5 per cent. For 2018-19, the target is 3.3 per cent. the ‘glide path’ towards
prudent expenditure has been recalibrated, not brushed aside.
At the same time, the Government went in for interventions in key sectors of the economy,
especially agriculture. on the rationale for this, Jaitley said, “We need to concentrate on rural India.- Rajiv Memani of
Ernst & Young; 6. YK Modi
of Great Eastern Energy
Corp 7. CK Birla of CK Birla
Group; 8. Chandrajit
Banerjee of CII; - Preetha Reddy;
- Harsh Pati Singhania
of JK Papers
58 9 106 7HOUSE
cover story